The BBC has removed a widely viewed podcast clip that incorrectly suggested that British pig farms currently run herds of 100,000 animals, after the National Pig Association lodged a formal complaint over what it called gross misrepresentations by the industry.
The claim was made on Radio 4’s Radical podcast with Amol Rajan, in which farmer and author James Rebanks said: “There are four or five pig farms in the UK that produce 90 per cent of our agricultural produce,” adding: “100,000 pigs is no longer a large scale pig farm.”
He also suggested in a Nov. 24 interview that without a herd of this size, producers “can’t participate,” describing it as a “huge industrial enterprise.”
In fact, the UK pig sector is dominated by small to medium-sized family farms, with herd sizes far below industrial scale models in other countries.
Rather than being concentrated in a few huge farms, production is distributed across thousands of farms and operates within the strictest welfare and environmental regulations in Europe.
The clip was viewed hundreds of thousands of times before being removed. Rebanks, who was contacted by pork industry representatives, acknowledged his mistake and stressed that he did not intend to denigrate or mislead pig farmers. He said he had used the word “farm” to mean “a producer or processor,” adding: “I’m sorry.”
In its complaint to the corporation, the NPA said the comments were inaccurate and risked misleading the public about how the UK pig sector actually operates. The association argued that such misconceptions could distort debates about welfare, food standards and environmental impact, and have a knock-on effect on public confidence in British agriculture.
Tom Haynes, head of communications, said: “The idea that there are almost any farms in the UK with 100,000 pigs is simply false. He cited government figures showing the average pig farm in the UK keeps 476 pigs, which rises to 938 if you exclude those with fewer than 10 pigs.
The association also stressed that both pig farms and poultry farms are highly regulated, with environmental permits from the Environment Agency required for locations housing more than 2,000 production pigs or more than 750 sows.
Mr Haynes said the BBC’s decision to cut out and promote the controversial sections of the podcast was an “aggressive choice” that would further amplify the inaccuracies. The station has since removed the clip from its platform.
