Protecting and ensuring the future of British farming has been a hot topic in recent days and weeks – but is the industry in danger of morphing into an American factory-style model?

The Environment Agency has received 32 applications for ‘mega farms’ in the last three years and some workers are afraid companies will use planning reforms to their advantage to push through controversial projects with dubious regulatory and welfare standards.

One such highly-publicised development is the bid of the UK’s biggest meat supplier Cranswick to expand a modest-sized farm between the villages of Methwold and Feltwell in Norfolk into one of the biggest industrial sites in Europe, with capacity for 870,000 chickens and 14,000 pigs.

Described by the company as a “sustainable and modern” farm, the plans have sparked unprecedented backlash, with over 15,000 incensed locals writing to the Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, urging it to throw the application out.

The objections suggest the farm could pose a risk to health through ammonia fumes and campaign groups Feedback and Sustain have also accused Cranswick of “failing to provide details of expected greenhouse gas emissions”.

One person wrote: “Tourists will stop coming to the area due to the smell and pollution. House prices in outlying towns and villages will plummet… We will no longer be able to enjoy our gardens or countryside, we won’t be able to hang out washing or have barbecues.”

“This type of factory farm is completely unnecessary with very low standards of animal welfare and will impact enormously on the local roads,” another added.

Terry Jermy, Labour MP for South West Norfolk, has also written to the Environment Agency, urging it not to issue a permit for the project on the grounds that it would cause “unnecessary and damaging pollution which will adversely affect people and biodiversity”.

The food giant, which supplies chicken and pork to major supermarket chains, maintains that the development would cause “negligible disturbance” to the surrounding area” and has positioned it as a means of safeguarding British food production.

“The UK imports a lot of pork and chicken as there is not enough produced in the UK to meet this demand,” a spokesperson told the Eastern Daily Press.

“The investment in our farms is made using best available techniques to ensure the most sustainable and efficient sites are developed and improve standards versus those already in operation. It also helps address the need for more security in the UK food chain.”

However, Rebecca Mayhew, a farmer in Norfolk, told the newspaper that the plans reflect a demand for cheaper produce increasingly not realistic for smaller agricultural sites. “These bigger companies are trying to take out the middleman and control every part of the supply chain,” she said.