Andrew Wasley

Brighton

Investigations Reporter at The Bureau of Investigative Journalism

Investigations Reporter at The Guardian

Investigative journalist specialising in food & environment issues, investigations reporter @tbij @guardian

Articles

UK chicken megafarms face a residents’ uprising

1 week ago | thebureauinvestigates.com | Tracy Keeling |Andrew Wasley

The signs dotted around the idyllic village of Thelnetham in Suffolk are decidedly uninviting. One reads: “Serious fowl play, stay away!” In the village hall, around a dozen residents gather to explain: they are standing against a planning proposal that would replace a local pig farm with broiler chicken breeding units. They fear the change will bring traffic, bad smells and pollution.
Farms near polluted Wye and Severn rivers given millions in…

2 weeks ago | thebureauinvestigates.com | Andrew Wasley

The UK government funnelled millions of pounds in taxpayers’ money to intensive poultry farmers near the Wye and Severn rivers despite the industry’s links to spiralling water and air pollution in the region, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) can reveal. At least £14m of public funds was paid out over a three-year period to farm operators in the counties surrounding the rivers: Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Monmouthshire, Worcestershire and Powys.
How decades of factory farming paved the way for today’s superbugs crisis

2 months ago | nationofchange.org | Andrew Wasley

Behind a high grey wall in the rolling countryside in the middle of England is a huge farm, a starting point for many of the dizzyingly complex supply chains that put food on our plates. Bushy hedgerows and wooded coverts surround an ugly sprawl of livestock sheds that house thousands of cattle being fattened for the meat trade. If you eat beef, there’s a good chance you’ve eaten beef from here. The scenes at this farm are far from idyllic. For a start, the cattle here don’t graze in fields.
Delays to post-Brexit border checks may have let diseased chicken enter UK

Jan 31, 2025 | msn.com | Andrew Wasley

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Delays to post-Brexit border checks may have let diseased chicken enter UK

Jan 31, 2025 | ca.news.yahoo.com | Andrew Wasley

Chickens at a farm in Poland. EU data shows that in 2024, tests revealed that at least 138 consignments of exported poultry from Poland contained salmonella. Chickens at a farm in Poland. EU data shows that in 2024, tests revealed that at least 138 consignments of exported poultry from Poland contained salmonella.
Delays to post-Brexit border checks may have let diseased chicken enter UK

Jan 31, 2025 | theguardian.com | Andrew Wasley

UK health bosses privately admitted that a lack of border inspections in the wake of Brexit had left British consumers exposed to diseased meat, an investigation has found. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has previously uncovered a host of failings in the government’s handling of outbreaks of drug-resistant salmonella, particularly that linked to supermarket chicken from Poland.
Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk and MSC: shipping giants 'enabling' beef-driven…

Dec 11, 2024 | thebureauinvestigates.com | Andrew Wasley

Brazilian beef has long been mired in controversy as a top cause of the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, a critical line of defence against climate breakdown. But it would not get on to supermarket shelves worldwide without major international shipping firms.
Cargill Still Using Critical Antibiotics Recklessly, Investigation Finds

Sep 27, 2024 | sentientmedia.org | Marlowe Starling |Andrew Wasley

As global leaders at the UN in New York pledged to tackle human suffering caused by antimicrobial resistance, the U.S. food giant Cargill was found to be slaughtering cattle containing residues of powerful antibiotics. Data obtained by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) covering the past two years showed that farms supplying Cargill are still using antibiotics that the World Health Organization (WHO) deems vital for human health.
Legal pressures mount for Cargill over River Wye pollution

Jul 8, 2024 | thebureauinvestigates.com | Andrew Wasley

The US meat and grain giant Cargill must compensate those affected by pollution in the River Wye or face court proceedings, lawyers preparing to sue the company have warned. Legal papers served to the company by the law firm Leigh Day say hundreds of people have suffered loss and damage because of pollution linked to growing industrial chicken farming in the region. The firm also demands that Cargill cleans up the river.
Growth of polluting ‘megafarms’ set to continue under next government

Jun 21, 2024 | thebureauinvestigates.com | Andrew Wasley

The UK faces the prospect of more polluting US-style “megafarms” under a Labour government after the party failed to include any pledges to restrict their growth in its manifesto. Environmentalists and campaigners have voiced concerns that the main political parties have stayed largely silent on the topic of intensive farming ahead of the UK election on 4 July. Only the Green party has included in its manifesto a clear pledge to ban factory farming.