| Porthole 15 Jul 22

A chicken deal with British groceries retailer Tesco may have helped pollute one of the country’s rivers, an investigation from The Guardian alleges.

The River Wye, the fourth-longest river in the UK, flows through Herefordshire, where bird numbers — and their waste — began surging in 2013, after Tesco signed a deal with a local processor.

Excrement from the birds is rich in phosphates and is spread on the land as a fertiliser to encourage crop growth, but the land can no longer absorb the amount of manure being spread along the Wye.

The runoff is turning the river into what campaigners describe as “pea soup”.