Save The Wye Coalition

MANIFESTO FOR THE RIVER WYE We call on the Governments of the UK and Wales to establish a single, cross-border approach to tackling the pollution crisis across the Wye catchment. www.wyemanifesto.org

🇺🇸 Fast-food giants. UK rivers. One BIG pollution problem. As American fast-food giants expand across the UK, demand for cheap chicken is soaring. But behind the boom lies a growing environmental crisis... 🧵1/2. riveractionuk.com/news/big-ame... @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

A glimpse of our Monday. We travelled from the Wye Valley to Westminster to lobby our MPs and ask them to challenge the government’s proposed Poultry Growth Strategy. This plan is being dreamed up (nightmared up 🧟‍♂️🐔) by Defra and the Big Chicken lobby without any community engagement.

We're SO close on hitting 100,000 signatures on our #ChokedByChicken petition. We need ONE FINAL PUSH to get us over the line. Help us make our voices impossible to ignore! ✍️ SIGN IT. SHARE IT. HELP US HIT 100K: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/st... @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

So many farmers have signalled their willingness to transition to more sustainable farming methods if the government supports them to do so - yet once again the rug has been pulled out from under them. Govt must step up on supporting the SFI and nature-friendly farming.

Water companies made £340mn last year accepting industrial wastewater they don't have the facilities to adequately treat. “Industrial pollution must not become a lucrative business for water companies" says Amy Fairman of @riveractionuk.bsky.social. Our report: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

608bn litres of industrial wastewater entered sewage plants last year. Sources include power stations, abattoirs, landfill, some with consents for chemicals such as mercury + cyanide - entering plants not designed to treat such waste. Our new report, out now: www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I've written to the govt about a concern causing real frustration across North Herefordshire: the practice of "farmwashing," where supermarkets use misleading marketing to suggest produce comes from British family farms - when it has actually come from overseas.

🚨 Water companies have made at least £1.4 BILLION from industrial wastewater in just six years. Our investigation with @watershed-i.bsky.social uncovered 26,131 consents allowing up to 607.6 BILLION litres of industrial wastewater into sewage works last year. 😵 riveractionuk.com/news/water-c...

When an algal bloom turned the Wye green, regulators were testing only a few spots a few times a year. Locals started testing weekly. Nicola Cutcher on the rise of the river guardians. newhumanist.org.uk/articles/why...

Revealed: Government quietly dropped plan to prepare England for wildfires I discovered via an FOI request that DEFRA’s commitment in the National Adaptation Programme to run a “wildfire risk programme” since 2023 “was not brought into effect”. #ClimateCrisis www.theguardian.com/world/2026/o...

🌍💧 What connects deforestation in Brazil with rivers in Wales? Our food supply chains can have impacts thousands of miles apart. This #WorldRiversDay, we’re calling for Wales to become the world’s first deforestation-free nation. 🌳💚

The fact that the entire funding pot for the SFI was allocated within mere hours of applications opening demonstrates the huge ambition of our farmers to invest in sustainable practices - but without proper support from the govt to do so, countless farmers will be left unable to take on this work.

Don't understand. Why is the dumping of toxic waste continuing? Why haven't the owners of the upstream farm and the developers been forced to remove all their waste, at their cost? Why are they still at liberty? #polluterspay www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The ripple effect... Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead has endorsed a Charter of Rights for the River Thames, marking a significant step. The charter has been modelled by Thames Carta on landmark Charter for the River Wye. thamescarta.org/news/royal-b... #riverrights #naturerights

1/3. For years, Thames Water has been feeding a very greedy tiger. Billions in debt. Ageing infrastructure starved of investment. Failing pipes. Polluted rivers. But the next chapter of the story doesn't have to be with more of the same. 🧵

🐔 Who is shaping the government’s poultry strategy? Defra says it wants to remove “barriers to growth” for the poultry sector. But when Big Chicken has a seat at the table, whose interests are actually being put first?? Article by Nicola Cutcher: tinyurl.com/2vxepyep

Why is our government cooking up a plan to grow the intensive poultry industry and putting Big Chicken in charge? My latest for @prospect_uk.co.uk www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/busine...

"Whatever happens next, it’s a summer that will linger in the memory". #Climatechange #fire #rewilding www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Rewilded land remains green amid drought-stricken English countryside, images show

Thank you to everyone who has watched Big Chicken on @netflix.com It’s in the Top 10 in multiple countries around the world exposing the facts behind the industrial poultry industry A must-see for those who want to know how the fried chicken boom puts us, animals & environment at risk @ciwf.org.uk

🚨 The pollution they leave out of the picture. Behind glossy food ads, factory farming is fuelling a pollution crisis in our rivers. That’s why we’ve joined #GagBigAg - calling time on ads that hide the true cost of factory-farmed food. Watch. Share. Join the campaign: www.gagbigag.org.uk

A RIVER’S RIGHT TO BE A RIVER AND WHY IT MATTERS TO US ALL A new idea is taking hold Giving rights to animals & nature is a way to recognise that every breath we take, every drop we drink & every bite we eat comes from the living world @ciwf.org.uk philiplymbery.com/a-rivers-rig...

3/3. Show us your suppliers are managing their manure responsibly. ✍️ TAKE ACTION: sign our Big Chicken petition and help stop Big Chicken from choking our rivers. bit.ly/4xhkuaz

2/3. If you buy around 30 million chickens a year - like Nando’s - the public deserves to know one thing: 💩 Where's all the muck going? Nando's. Tesco. KFC. Every major chicken retailer. 🐔 Don't chicken out... 🧵

Hey Nando's ... remember us? 👀 Industrial chicken farming is one of the biggest threats to our rivers. Millions of tonnes of chicken manure are polluting our waterways, fuelling algal blooms and choking the life out of our rivers... 1/3. 🧵 SIGN THE PETITION: bit.ly/4xhkuaz

We try to be good neighbours, Big Chicken says, while literally polluting our rivers to death. Watch Netflix's new show 'Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy' then get over to River Action's petition to save our waterways from industrial chicken farming.

If we want clean rivers, we can’t ignore #BigChicken Industrial poultry is polluting our waterways while the biggest players escape accountability. Join thousands calling for change. 👇 Sign our Big Chicken petition and demand action to protect our rivers: bit.ly/4xhkuaz

🚨 STOP BIG CHICKEN CHOKING OUR RIVERS Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy has landed on Netflix, exposing the hidden costs of our obsession with cheap chicken. Here in the UK, our rivers are already paying the price. SIGN THE PETITION: bit.ly/4xhkuaz 🧵 1/2...

2/2. So who is Big Chicken? How did we get here? And why are our rivers paying the price? We've broken it all down in our latest blog. 👇👇 #BigChicken #RescueOurRivers riveractionuk.com/news/factory...

🚨 Meet Big Chicken - a powerful industrial system producing more than 1 BILLION chickens in the UK every year. Together, those birds generate an estimated 3.5M tonnes of 💩 a year – and often our rivers are left to deal with the consequences.. 1/2. riveractionuk.com/news/factory...

Out today on Netflix: Big Chicken: A Fast Food Conspiracy. Mo Gilligan spends 28 days eating fried chicken while uncovering the hidden costs of the global chicken industry - from our diets to its impact on people and our environment. #BigChicken #savethewye #RescueOurRivers

🚨 RIVER ACTION INVESTIGATION: The hidden water scandal behind Britain's hosepipe bans. Millions of households are being told to use less water. But our investigation reveals a much bigger story... 🔽 🔽 #WaterCrisis riveractionuk.com/news/hosepip...

Her deputy, Angela Eagle, sought to implement these devastating policies, telling lobbyists for the chicken companies she would seek to relax the planning rules. Angela Eagle is the new Environment Secretary. Burnham needs to tell her this nonsense must stop. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The outgoing Environment Secretary, Emma Reynolds, exemplified the problem. She spent her final weeks in office ripping down controls on industrial chicken farming, which destroys our rivers. She did so at the behest of corporate lobbyists. Her job before joining the government? Corporate lobbyist.

This week's column explains how successive Environment Secretaries in the UK have been actively facilitating ecocide on behalf of industrial lobbyists. Charged with protecting the living world, one after another has been working for the enemy. This has to change.🧵 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Add your voice to the call for evidence on freshwater quality in Wales. Consultation: does the law successfully protect the freshwater environment in Wales? Please submit your comments by 27 July 2026 by emailing IEPAW@gov.wales Notes and guidance here: savethewye.org/2026/07/20/a...

Poultry sector growth plan risks UK national security, campaigners warn.“Intensive poultry farming is highly resource-intensive, polluting and inefficient, so it can never be a solution to food security,” Ruth Westcott @sustainweb.org www.theguardian.com/environment/...

looks like Thames Water has given a 14% pay rise to its chief executive and a 26% rise to its finance director

A short film about our bacterial testing at The Warren, Hay-on-Wye with equipment provided by @riveractionuk.bsky.social Our first test 25/06/26 recorded a worryingly high level of E.Coli. over 3x the safe bathing limit. We publish our results each week on our website. @savethewye.bsky.social