Evergreen Farm, Swaffham, Norfolk

Posted on the 23rd January 2009

(Filmed August 2008)

Jon Easey is a director in the family business. His online BPEX profile says that he has ‘endeavoured hard to direct industry policy and lobby government from the fringes’.

In the farrowing crates, bored mothers are held virtually immobile while their dead offspring litter the floor around them.
Newborn piglets investigate the body of a dead sibling.
One young dead piglet lies splayed in a corner.
Two young piglets are photographed beneath the crate itself. They may have fallen and now sit huddled below it, with placenta hanging down around them. Above, on the slatted floor, lie three dead siblings.
In one pen, four dead babies are heaped next to their mother’s foot.
Wheelie bins contain the bodies of still more dead.
Between births, the sows are afforded a little respite from the farrowing crates. They live in small groups in small pens. There is a frugal supply of straw for these animals but not enough to provide genuine comfort or meaningful enrichment.