What is life like for people living next door to an industrial-scale livestock farm, and how does it affect their daily lives? Greenpeace campaigners visited animal farms and their surrounding communities in France, Denmark, Spain and Italy between December 2018 and March 2019 to find out.

There are more than 330m cows, sheep and pigs in the EU, with a further several billion chickens reared and slaughtered every year. The growth of Europe’s animal farming sector has seen it exceed what scientists have claimed are safe bounds for greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient flows and biodiversity loss. This has lead to calls from campaign groups for a halving of meat and dairy production by 2050.

Next door to one of the biggest dairy farms in Spain

Calf hutches on the Valle de Odieta Scl dairy farm, near Caparroso, Navarre

Ricardo Antón (below) is known as Ritxi by his neighbours. The 56-year-old runs an organic horticulture farm in Caparroso, Navarre, in northern Spain, which caters for small clients, including two school canteens.

“All these big factory farms represent a threat to the ecosystem in the area,” he says. “Also, smaller enterprises can hardly sustain their production.” He says traditional farms – small-scale operations with a diversity of crops and livestock – are disappearing.

There has been a shift over the past 50 years from traditional and extensive livestock production in Spain towards intensive and industrial-scale farms. Just up the road from Antón, the dairy farm operating under the name of Valle de Odieta Scl is one of the biggest dairy farms in Spain. In November 2018, the farm had 5,531 adult cows, 60% more than is permitted through national regulations, according to official numbers provided in documents from the government of Navarre to Greenpeace. The owners did not respond to requests for comment.

The owners of the farm plan to build the EU’s biggest dairy factory farm, with more than 23,000 cows in Noviercas, a village of less than 200 inhabitants in Soria, Castilla y León. This new farm was rejected in the regions of Navarre, País Vasco and Cantabria, but the owners have the support of the mayor in Noviercas.

Living next to a pig farm in Denmark

Former high school teacher Bente Jørgensen has lived in the village of Tingerup, about 60km west of Copenhagen, with her husband Søren Hansen, a chemical engineer, for more than 20 years. Her home is just 100 metres away from the Vandvaerksgaarden pig farm.

Jørgensen says the couple are afraid of being exposed to possible toxic substances, through manure and air. When the smell is strong, Jørgensen wears a face mask outside. “The smell is so awful that it makes me feel sick. My head aches and my eyes are red and swollen. I feel that our lives are destroyed because of the smell, noise and dust from the farm,” she says.

The body of a dead piglet in a bin outside the industrial pig farm Vandvaerksgaarden, in Tingerup

Jørgensen enjoys being outside, but she limits her time outdoors because the smell coming from the farm is so bad and she fears the long-term health impacts of her exposure to it. She has to clean her garden fence several times every year because of algae growth, which she believes is fuelled by nitrogen from farm ammonia emissions. Every Thursday, dead pigs are being collected from the farms in the area. Until collection day the neighbours say they often see dead pigs outside the farms. Under Danish law, dead pigs should be covered and not visible.

The Vandvaerksgaarden pig farm (below) is one of nine pig farms run by Peter Kjaer Knudsen and his three sons in or close to the villages of Tingerup, Bukkerup, Soderup and Baarup. Together these farms produce almost 90,000 slaughter pigs and more than 100,000 piglets a year. Early in 2019, Peter Kjaer Knudsen was found guilty by the local court for producing about 9% more pigs than he was allowed to during the years 2010-2011. Knudsen did not respond to requests for comment.

I feel that our lives are destroyed because of the smell Bente Jørgensen

Denmark produces 33m pigs a year: one of the biggest producers in the world on a per capita basis. Most of its pigmeat is exported with the country accounting for just under 60% of all EU exports. The number of pig farms is decreasing in the country with the remaining ones getting larger. Greenpeace Nordic has called on the Danish government to investigate the health risks to local communities from manure and ammonia emissions, which has been considered an urgent health problem in other countries.

An egg-laying factory in France

Catherine Gavelle, who lives 300 metres from a hen factory farm

The primary school in the village of Lescout is located just 500 metres from the egg-laying hen farm of Gallès SAS. First built in the 1980s, it steadily grew and after expanding in 2016 it now keeps 185,000 hens, outnumbering the population of the village more than 250 times over. The owner is planning further expansion after requesting a permit for a new building.

“During some mornings, the smell was so corrosive in the throat and nose that for the sake of children’s safety, we preferred to keep them indoors during playtime,” says Cathy Double, a former teaching assistant at the school.

Left, the egg-laying farm Gallès SAS; right, children play outside Lescout school, 500 metres from the farm

The farm is also close to Château du Gua, a historic castle belonging to 57-year-old architect Catherine Gavelle. “I think this type of factory farm should have never been constructed in the first place. There should not be the authorisation to construct an industrial building alongside a village and next to a listed building. This factory farm has affected my life with its visual, its noise and its smell,” she says.

Intensive pig farms in Italy

Azienda Agricola Fontanelle SNC di Ferrari e C, a pig farm in Cadelbosco, in the Emilia-Romagna region

Adalgisa Martorelli (below), aged 55, lives in the small village of Cadelbosco, in the Emilia-Romagna region, and suffers from a respiratory illness that, she says, worsens in the presence of strong smell. She has repeatedly been forced to leave her home during manure-spreading by two local pig farms, Azienda Agricola Fontanelle SNC di Ferrari e C and Allevamento Azienda Agricola Tenuta Vincenzo Srl. She has undergone several hospitalisations and sometimes has to use an oxygen mask at home.

There is no medical evidence of a link between her illness and farm pollution, but Martorelli says her condition has improved since the second farm stopped spreading manure on the field near her home.

Ten years ago, Martorelli created a small local committee together with other inhabitants of the village, which documented sewage spills from the first farm, Azienda Agricola Fontanelle SNC di Ferrari e C, into local waterways. The farm was forced by the local authorities to suspend the spreading of the manure for five years in part of neighbouring fields and reduce the number of pigs on the farm – from 12,500 to 3,899.

The farm owners told the Guardian that the alleged sewage spills were due to pipe breaks and a very rare occurrence. They said the reduction of pig numbers was unconnected to the sewage spills, but due to the complaints of the Clean Air Committee. They also said they had been monitoring emissions from the farm, which they claim are below Italian and European averages for pig herds.

The second pig farm – owned by Azienda Agricola Tenuta Vincenzo Srl – has been granted permission to expand from 2,000 to 7,000 pigs. Martorelli’s committee is opposing this enlargement. “I’m terrified about the new request for enlargement. If this will be really done, I will probably not be able to live here any longer. I will have to decide to leave my home,” she says.

Adalgisa Martorelli has been forced to leave her home when manure is being spread

The farm owner Dario Gualini told the Guardian that it had received environmental permissions for the expansion and would be monitoring its impact. “We have adopted the best techniques in the field of animal welfare and the protection from smell and environmental pollution. We are convinced, as the authorities that issued the permits, that our structure will be taken as an example in the future for the best conditions for both animals and humans.”