As Jamie Oliver prepares to denounce substandard European pig farms as part of Channel 4’s The Great British Food Fight and, instead, urge consumers to buy British, Animal Aid today publishes its shocking findings from an investigation into some of the leading pig farm operators in the country.

The campaigning organisation visited seven farms owned or run by five directors of the industry levy board, the British Pig Executive (BPEX). All were appointed to BPEX by Defra. The seven farms were secretly filmed between April 2008 and January of this year. Among the scenes filmed by Animal Aid were pregnant and nursing sows incarcerated in farrowing crates; dead, sick and dying piglets littering the pens; animals wading through filth or living in utterly barren environments; a lack of bedding; and a lack of environmental enrichment, despite the law stating that this must be provided.