George Monbiot argues that successive UK environment secretaries have prioritised industrial poultry lobbyists over environmental protection, with rivers suffering as a result. He singles out outgoing secretary Emma Reynolds, who used her final weeks in post to push for weaker planning rules that would make it easier to build more large-scale chicken factories, despite the pollution they cause.

Monbiot explains that manure from these facilities overwhelms surrounding land and washes into rivers, effectively killing the waterways once planning permission is granted. He notes Reynolds previously worked as a financial-sector lobbyist, and that her successor, Angela Eagle, also pushed similar "planning reforms" while serving as her deputy, telling poultry lobbyists that "planning should enable ambition, not stifle it." The piece questions whether Andy Burnham's promised "circuit breaker" will genuinely curb this pattern of ministerial deference to corporate interests.