PROTESTORS against an increase in intensive poultry farms across Powys met in a socially distanced demonstration at Brookside, Knighton on Thursday.

The organisers, Sustainable Food Knighton, said about 30 banner-carrying supporters attended during the morning and many passers-by expressed support.

Many added their signatures to a petition opposing a planned unit at Llanshay near Knighton and calling on the Welsh Government to call a moratorium on further construction across the country.

Sustainable Food Knighton representative Camilla Saunders said the group is “concerned not only about an application from a Knighton farmer to build an intensive poultry unit (IPU) at Llanshay, but also the cumulative detrimental effects of the roughly eight million chickens that are being reared in IPUs at any one moment in Powys”.

She added: “Sustainable Food Knighton wants all agencies to work with farmers, food suppliers and consumers to implement a proper strategy that would enable the provision of good quality, affordable food to local people, while also increasing biodiversity and caring for human, animal and environmental health, in line with the Welsh Government’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, the Environment Wales Act 2016, and the declaration of a Climate Emergency both by the Welsh Government and, more recently, Powys Council.”

Thursday’s action was just part of an ongoing campaign by which the group will continue to raise the issue of intensive farming until Powys Council, NRW and the Welsh Government address their concerns, grant a moratorium and start implementing a post-Brexit sustainable food strategy.