Activist/Animanaturalis megafarm investigation
Investigation & Exposure
In Effect
June 12, 2025
Summary
On 12 June 2025, AGtivist (AGtivist.agency) and AnimaNaturalis published findings from a cross-country investigative project that identified and mapped industrial-scale pig and chicken megafarms across the European Union and the United Kingdom. The investigation combined public permit records, internal EU environmental and industrial data, access-to-information responses, satellite cartography, drone imagery, and ground-level footage obtained by AnimaNaturalis and partner organisations to produce facility-level maps and quantified country breakdowns of industrial livestock operations above defined thresholds: pig farms with ≥2,000 pigs over 30 kg or ≥2,547 breeding pigs, and poultry farms with ≥40,000 birds.
The investigation identified 22,263 industrial chicken and pig megafarms in the EU housing more than 516 million animals (24,087 including UK farms, per one source), representing the first comprehensive public mapping of this scale using aggregated official permit data. Spain is presented as the primary case study: the investigation identified 3,963 total megafarm permits in Spain (3,401 pig, 562 poultry), approximately 16% of all identified EU and UK megafarms and roughly 30% of EU pig megafarms — more than double Denmark’s pig megafarm count. Spain recorded 1,385 megafarm permits granted between 2014 and 2023, the highest figure in the EU over that decade, and approximately 1,237 new industrial livestock operations opened in Spain in the preceding ten years, out of approximately 2,746 to 3,000 across the EU. Specific Spain figures include 2,580 industrial pig fattening megafarms and 821 industrial pig breeding megafarms. Spanish investigative journalism collective Carro de Combate participated in the research and published a Spanish-language analysis contextualising the permit data against regional regulatory frameworks, including a moratorium on new megafarms in Castilla-La Mancha that ended in early 2025. Essere Animali (Italy) and other EU partner NGOs contributed visual documentation from their national contexts.
The investigation’s data are drawn primarily from national pollution and permit registers equivalent to Spain’s Registro Estatal de Emisiones y Fuentes Contaminantes (PRTR) and from EU environmental legislation thresholds that trigger emission declaration obligations for large livestock operations. The investigation notes its facility counts are likely minimum estimates given data gaps in some national registers.
Background Context
Before the AGtivist/AnimaNaturalis investigation, industrial pig and poultry megafarm data existed across multiple fragmented national permit and emission registers but had not been comprehensively collated and mapped at EU scale. Spain had the EU’s largest pig herd, with approximately 33 million pigs and concentration in regions including Catalonia, Aragón, and Castilla-La Mancha, and ongoing public debate over “macrogranjas” (megafarms) as a political and environmental term. Preceding AnimaNaturalis investigation campaigns had documented conditions in specific Spanish pig facilities. The Castilla-La Mancha regional government had operated a moratorium on new megafarms that ended in early 2025, creating immediate political salience for permit expansion data at the time of publication.
System Impact
Direction
Neutral / Administrative
Type
Exposes System
Significance
Moderate
AGtivist coordinated the EU-wide data research, obtaining permit records, internal EU data, and FOI responses. AnimaNaturalis provided Spain-specific contextualisation and farm-level video footage of pig facility conditions. Carro de Combate published Spanish-language analysis of permit data including regional and regulatory context. The core investigation and all primary findings were published on 12 June 2025. The data continue to be referenced in NGO and media outputs through at least mid-2026, including in coverage of megafarm welfare conditions and antimicrobial resistance. No formal legal challenges to the investigation’s published data are documented. Corporate-level operators of specific mapped megafarms are not systematically named in publicly available summaries; facility counts focus on permit data rather than ownership structures.
Anticipated Effects
If used by policymakers, the mapped permit data could inform environmental and agricultural decision-making, including constraints on new permits, regional moratoria extensions, or changes to EU emission-reporting frameworks.
If adopted by NGOs and media for targeted campaigns, the facility-level mapping could support local mobilisation, litigation strategies, or regulatory submissions focused on specific high-intensity regions or individual megafarm projects.
Whether the investigation produces measurable closures, scale reductions, or changes in Spain’s megafarm permit trajectory is not established in available sources through mid-2026.
Significance Rationale
Assigned Neutral / Administrative (impact direction) because the investigation exposes and quantifies the existing scale and distribution of industrial pig and chicken megafarms in Spain and the EU without directly closing, creating, or altering facilities. No confirmed closures or permitted expansion reversals directly attributable to the investigation are documented in sources consulted through mid-2026.
Assigned Exposes System (impact type) because the primary mechanism is aggregating previously fragmented official permit and emission data and combining it with visual documentation to make the number, location, and operational characteristics of industrial megafarms publicly visible and accessible to media, NGOs, and policymakers.
Assigned Moderate significance because the investigation provides system-level visibility over industrial pig and chicken megafarms across Spain and the EU, with detailed quantified facility counts, geographic distribution, and temporal permit trend data — materially distinguishing it from single-facility investigations. No documented direct exploitation changes are attributable to it within the period covered by available sources.
Impact direction is Neutral / Administrative; the trajectory sentence is not applicable.
Key Actors
AGtivist (AGtivist.agency) coordinated the EU-wide data research and publication. AnimaNaturalis provided Spain-specific contextualisation and visual documentation of pig facility conditions. Carro de Combate participated in research and published Spanish-language analysis. Essere Animali (Italy) and other EU partner NGOs contributed national visual documentation. Spanish national and regional authorities, including the Registro Estatal de Emisiones y Fuentes Contaminantes (PRTR) system, provided the underlying permit data extracted and mapped by the investigation.
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