The Dark Trace in the Water of Cheap Meat Business

Pork production for export has been one Spain and Germany’s big economic successes in this first quarter of the century. Chicken is a keystone seller for Tesco, the British supermarket giant. Cheap meat allows for large profits, but its low-cost production model, based on reducing costs specially on transport, has implied unprecedented farm concentration. The areas where these farms have been established are no longer able to cope with the water damage caused by animal excrements. An international investigation led by DATADISTA and The Guardian, disseminated in collaboration with elDiario.es and counting on the financing by Journalismfund.eu, locates areas with very high concentration of intensive livestock farming, digs into how these territories were grabbed by the meat business, big supermarkets, and world's pork megaproducers and unveils the degree to which water resources have been already damaged.

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

• Premio Gabo 2023: Ana Tudela and Antonio Delgado were nominated for in the category "Coverage", for showing how the areas of extremely high concentration of intensive macro-farms in Europe have polluted rivers, aquifers and even drinking water. 
• This investigation won the 2023 Climate Journalism Award in the Data Category. 
• Special Mention in the III Vicente Verdú Awards for Journalism and Innovation.
• API (Asociación de Periodistas de Investigación) Award 2023 for Best Journalism Investigative Work in Spain in the Data category.

Here Ana Tudela is talking about this project in one of Journalismfund's webinars: