MapTheFood

Layers, views and analysis

Large farms

i ▶

Plants

Environmental impacts ▶

NH3 emissions

Greenhouse gases (CH4 + N2O)

Inspections and controls

All farms

i ▶

Farm distribution

Livestock distribution

Livestock density per resident

Livestock density per hectare of UAA

Cattle and nitrates

Declared emissions

Slaughter and logistics

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Slaughter by province

Market and consumption

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Household spending on beef

Supply chain and footprint

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Origin of raw materials Italian imports

CAP payments

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CAP payments 2025

CAP & NH₃ emissions

Regions

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Regions overview Abruzzo Basilicata Calabria Campania Emilia-Romagna Friuli-Venezia Giulia Lazio Liguria Lombardy Marche Molise Piedmont Puglia Sardinia Sicily Tuscany Trentino-Alto Adige Umbria Aosta Valley Veneto

Analysis

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Large farms ▶

Plants

Environmental impacts ▶

NH3 emissions Greenhouse gases (CH4 + N2O) Inspections and controls

All farms ▶

Farm distribution Livestock distribution Livestock density per resident Livestock density per hectare of UAA Cattle and nitrates Declared emissions

Slaughter and logistics▶

Slaughter by province

Market and consumption▶

Household spending on beef

Supply chain and footprint▶

Dossier · Beef footprint

CAP ▶

CAP payments 2025 CAP concentration CAP & NH₃ emissions

EU documents

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COM(2026) 576 Directive (EU) 2024/1785

Open data Methodology Updates Privacy About

E-PRTR / IED · Plants

Plant locations

1,242 intensive livestock plants subject to the IED Directive (Industrial Emissions Directive) 2010/75/EU with an active declaration as of 2024: poultry (>40,000 places) and pigs (>2,000 production places / >750 sows). Cattle farms are not within the IED/E-PRTR scope: the Directive's revision approved in 2024 did not include them among the activities subject to the environmental declaration obligation.

Select one or more species from the left-hand bar to display pins on the map. Click a pin for the plant's full profile.

For a reading of this data, see Analysis → E-PRTR/IED → Plants.

BDN (National Livestock Database) · as of 31/12/2025

Farm distribution

Number of farms by municipality (BDN — National Livestock Database, as of 31/12/2025). Bubble size proportional to the number of farms registered in the selected species; colour = prevalent species.

The bubble is positioned on the municipality's centroid, not on the farms' actual location: it does not indicate the real location of the animals.

Municipalities by farms

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → BDN → Farm distribution.

BDN (National Livestock Database) · as of 31/12/2025

Livestock distribution

Number of animals by municipality, one species at a time (BDN — National Livestock Database, as of 31/12/2025). Bubble size proportional to the animals registered in the selected species; colour = selected species.

The selection is exclusive: choosing a species replaces the previous one. Different species have very different farm sizes — a poultry farm averages thousands of animals, a cattle farm a few dozen: summing them in a single bubble would make the comparison misleading.

The bubble is positioned on the municipality's centroid, not on the farms' actual location: it does not indicate the real location of the animals.

Municipalities by species

Select a species.

For a reading of this data, see Analysis → BDN → Livestock distribution.

BDN + ISTAT · population 1/1/2026

Livestock density per resident

Ratio between animals registered in the BDN (as of 31/12/2025) and ISTAT resident population (as of 1/1/2026), by province. Each province is shaded according to animals per resident in the selected species (or the total): a more intense shade = a higher value; hue = selected species.

Animals per resident measures how much livestock weighs relative to the people living in that territory: useful for understanding where livestock farming is more visible in daily life (farm traffic, odours, pressure on local services) or where its political and economic weight is more concentrated relative to the resident population. It says nothing about the territory's capacity to absorb the environmental load of livestock farming: a depopulated municipality with few animals can have a high animals/resident ratio without any pressure on agricultural land. For that question, see the Livestock density per hectare of UAA view.

The figure is available only at province and region level: at municipality level MapTheFood applies an anonymisation threshold, masking cells with fewer than 5 farms per municipality and species to protect small farmers. At that scale the map would be incomplete in a non-uniform way across the territory.

Provinces by animals/resident

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → BDN → Livestock density per resident.

BDN + ISTAT · UAA 2020

Livestock density per hectare of UAA

Ratio between animals registered in the BDN (as of 31/12/2025) and the Utilised Agricultural Area (UAA) surveyed by ISTAT (2020), by province. Each province is shaded according to animals per hectare of UAA in the selected species (or the total): a more intense shade = a higher value; hue = selected species.

Animals per hectare of UAA is the normalisation consistent with the Nitrates Directive, which sets the limit for manure nitrogen spreadable per hectare of agricultural land (170 kg/ha in Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, 340 kg/ha outside them): it measures livestock pressure on the land that can actually absorb it, not on the population living there. It is the most relevant reading from an environmental and agronomic standpoint; for demographic and social weight, see Livestock density per resident.

UAA refers to the 2020 census, animals to 31/12/2025: a five-year gap during which a territory's agricultural surface may have changed. The figure is available only at province and region level, for the same BDN anonymisation limits as the Livestock density per resident view.

Provinces by animals/ha UAA

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → BDN → Livestock density per hectare of UAA.

E-PRTR (European Emissions Register) · 2024

Environmental declarations · NH₃

The complete E-PRTR scope retains the 701 declarants in the IED scope and adds 63 declarants not associated with a livestock IED 6.6 code.

This view shows ammonia (NH₃) declarations for 2024. The native IED scope includes farms associated with codes 6.6(a), 6.6(b) or 6.6(c); the extended E-PRTR scope adds 63 livestock-sector declarants with no such association in EEA v16.

Plants without a declaration appear as small dots. The blue border marks the plants with the highest declared emissions among those visible with the active filters, up to a maximum of 15 — the same ones listed in the ranking below.

The dashed amber halo identifies an E-PRTR declaration not associated with a livestock IED 6.6 code. For 61 of the 63 records, the available code does not distinguish the species.

Within the native IED scope, 43.6% of plants (541 of 1,242) have no NH₃ declaration for 2024; most are still listed as active in the IED register. The divergence between the two registers is shown as information and does not, by itself, determine a plant's permitting status.

Top NH₃ emitters

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → E-PRTR/IED → Environmental Impacts → NH₃ Emissions.

E-PRTR (European Emissions Register) · GWP100 AR6

Environmental declarations · CH₄ + N₂O

Methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) are the main greenhouse gases from intensive livestock plants. Methane comes from enteric fermentation and manure management; nitrous oxide from nitrogen-treated soils and digestate. The size of the circle is proportional to the tonnes of CO₂ equivalent declared (GWP100 AR6: CH₄ × 27, N₂O × 273).

Coverage is partial: the E-PRTR Regulation requires declaration only from plants that exceed the 100 t/year CH₄ threshold. Plants below the threshold or without a declaration appear as small dots. The reference year may vary by plant. The blue border marks the plants with the highest declared emissions among those visible with the active filters, up to a maximum of 15 — the same ones listed in the ranking below.

Top CO₂eq emitters

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → E-PRTR/IED → Environmental Impacts → Greenhouse Gases.

IED/F6 · Directive 2010/75/EU · Legislative Decree 152/2006 · Reference year 2024

Inspections and AIA permits

IED plants (thresholds: >40,000 poultry, >2,000 pigs, >750 sows) are subject to an Integrated Environmental Permit (AIA) and to periodic inspections scheduled by the competent authority — in Italy, ARPA or the Province. Article 23 of the Directive sets the frequency according to risk: from every 12 months for critical plants to every 3 years for those with low impact and full compliance with requirements.

Filled pins: plant inspected in 2024. Outlined pins: no visit recorded in the year. Emission requirements follow the BAT (Best Available Techniques) of the IRPP document — Intensive Rearing of Pigs and Poultry.

Inspections by province (2024)

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → E-PRTR/IED → Environmental Impacts → Inspections and Controls.

BDN · 31/12/2025 · NVZ Directive 91/676/EEC

Livestock and Nitrate Vulnerable Zones

The blue areas are the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs), territories designated by the Regions under the Nitrates Directive 91/676/EEC: areas where monitoring has detected nitrate concentrations above the threshold (50 mg/l in groundwater) or eutrophication of surface waters, or areas that, due to soil and aquifer vulnerability, risk exceeding it without specific protection measures. The bubbles show livestock for the species selected in the Layers panel, by municipality (BDN, Ministry of Health, as of 31/12/2025, data aggregated on the municipality's centroid, not on a single farm's location). Select one species at a time, to avoid summing species with very different farm sizes.

The Autonomous Province of Bolzano and Aosta Valley do not appear because they have never designated NVZs on their territory (source: ISPRA/MASE, October 2023), not because of missing data. Marche, Molise, Basilicata and Calabria have designated NVZs not yet integrated into this view. Region-by-region regulatory references are at the bottom of the panel.

Municipalities by livestock (BDN 2025)

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → BDN → Cattle and nitrates.

INEMAR · reference year 2023

Declared emissions

Livestock-related atmospheric emissions by province, from the regional INEMAR inventories of Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy and Veneto: the sum of SNAP sectors 4 (enteric fermentation), 5 (manure management, organic compounds), 9 (manure management, nitrogen compounds) and 10 (particulate matter from livestock), macrosector 10 — Agriculture. Sector 7 (manure spreading) is excluded because it is reported only by Lombardy.

Emilia-Romagna: the ARPAE dataset does not report CH₄, N₂O, CO₂ or sector 4. Its values for NH₃/PM10/etc. therefore reflect only sectors 5, 9 and 10 — systematically lower, for the same actual livestock, than Lombardy and Veneto.

Data shown at province level for all three regions, even where the source offers municipal detail (Emilia-Romagna, Veneto): Lombardy publishes sector-level detail only at province level.

Provinces by selected pollutant

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → BDN → Declared emissions.

Official data

vetinfo / BDN · 2025

Slaughter by province

Number of animals slaughtered in 2025 by province of the slaughterhouse, one species at a time (selector at the top of the map, exclusive selection). The figure reflects the actual activity of the slaughtering plants in the province, including animals of foreign origin slaughtered in Italy.

Pigs includes wild boar slaughtered in plants (a category that cannot be separated out in the source); Poultry sums chickens and hens, turkeys, pigeons and other poultry species; Sheep & goats sums the three BDN recording modes (identified individual animals, unidentified individual animals, batches); Cattle and buffalo are aggregated together in the source and cannot be separated out.

This figure does not measure local meat consumption. A slaughterhouse is located where there is industrial capacity and proximity to farms, not where the meat is subsequently consumed: the product enters national distribution and export through large-scale retail chains. A province with high slaughter volumes does not mean that more of that meat is consumed there, nor that livestock farming for that species is concentrated there: an industrial plant can process animals coming from farms in provinces or regions other than the one where the slaughterhouse is located, and the meat produced then follows its own distribution routes, independent of where the animal was slaughtered.

Provinces by animals slaughtered

Select a species.

For a reading of this data, see Analysis → Slaughter and logistics → Slaughter by province.

Official data

ISTAT · COICOP 01121 · 2021 · CATTLE ONLY

Household spending on beef

Average monthly household expenditure on beef in the three Italian macro-areas. This is the most detailed geography published by Istat for this item.

It is not a price per kg and does not directly measure kilograms consumed.

€ / household / month

See Analysis → Market and consumption → Household spending on beef.

MapTheFood calculation

EUROSTAT COMEXT · ITALY · 2024

Origin of imported feed materials

Quantified Italian imports of soybeans, soybean meal/cake and maize. Line width is proportional to imported tonnes.

The data do not identify the share used for cattle. They describe national commodity trade.

Main partners 2025

The Beef footprint dossier uses these flows only as upstream context.

CAP · AGEA 2025 & E-PRTR · EEA 2024

CAP and NH₃ emissions by territory

CAP territorial level

The view overlays 2025 CAP amounts with native-IED-scope plants reporting NH₃ in 2024. At regional and provincial level CAP is shown as a gold choropleth; at municipal level it uses proportional bubbles. NH₃ plants always remain point circles sized by the declared amount.

The two variables use independent scales and do not imply a causal relationship. The scope selector in the dedicated NH₃ view does not modify this combined view.

Regions by CAP payments and NH₃ declarations

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → CAP/AGEA → CAP & NH₃ emissions.

CAP · Reg. EU 2021/2115 · AGEA source · Ref. year 2025

CAP payments by territory

Territorial level

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the main support instrument for the European agricultural sector. Funds distributed in Italy for 2025 amount to €7.70 billion, through EAFRD, EAGF and co-financed national measures. Select a level: bubbles show municipal totals; choropleths show the same amounts aggregated by province or region. A darker shade indicates a higher total amount.

The data is drawn from the public AGEA portal, which publishes beneficiaries and amounts annually for transparency purposes (Reg. EU 2021/2115, Annex III). The figure is aggregated across all agricultural sectors — cereals, wine-growing, horticulture, olive-growing, livestock and others — and does not allow the share destined for livestock to be isolated from that for crops.

Regions by CAP payments received (2025)

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For a reading of this data, see Analysis → CAP/AGEA → CAP payments 2025.

E-PRTR / IED · European Industrial Emissions Register

Plants subject to EU environmental declaration

The E-PRTR register (Regulation (EC) 166/2006) collects annual emission declarations from European industrial plants; the IED register separately identifies installations subject to Directive 2010/75/EU. This section adopts the native IED scope and shows only poultry and pig farms carrying code 6.6(a), 6.6(b) or 6.6(c): location, declared emissions, inspections and integrated environmental permits. Cattle are outside this scope and do not appear in the section.

Select a view — Plants, Environmental Impacts/NH₃ Emissions, Greenhouse Gases or Inspections and Controls — to explore the data declared by each plant.

BDN · National Livestock Database

All farms, data aggregated by municipality

The National Livestock Database (BDN), managed by IZSUM on behalf of the Ministry of Health, records all Italian farms registered by species, regardless of size. Unlike the E-PRTR register, the BDN also covers cattle and small farms below the IED threshold, but the data published here is aggregated by municipality — not by individual business — to protect the privacy of individual operators.

Select a view to explore the distribution of farms and animals by municipality, livestock density, the overlap with Nitrate Vulnerable Zones, and the regional inventories of declared emissions.

VETINFO / BDN · Slaughter and logistics

Slaughter and animal movements

This section brings together indicators covering the stage between farms and slaughter: the territorial distribution of slaughter volumes and, where the sources allow a reliable reconstruction, relationships between the animals' place of origin and their destination establishments.

Views distinguish species when the data allow it and separately identify information taken directly from BDN or vetinfo and information requiring cartographic processing. Select a view to explore the available data.

ISTAT · Market and consumption

Food markets and consumption

This section brings together indicators on the final stage of the food supply chain: household expenditure, consumption, prices and other information on the relationship between food products and the market. Territorial detail and reference periods depend on the availability and coverage of each source.

Views are published when the source supports homogeneous and methodologically documented territorial comparisons. Select a view to explore the available data.

COMEXT · Supply chain and footprint

Raw materials and resources associated with food supply chains

This section reconstructs selected upstream stages of food production and the resources associated with them: origin of raw materials, animal feed, land use, water and emissions. The scope varies according to the availability of verifiable data for each product and supply chain.

Trade data describe national import flows. Attribution to a specific supply chain or animal species is shown only when supported by dedicated sources. Select a view to explore the available data.

CAP · Common Agricultural Policy · AGEA source

Public agricultural payments, by territory

Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments are published by AGEA for transparency purposes (Reg. EU 2021/2115, Annex III) and cover the entire agricultural sector, not only livestock. This section shows 2025 payments at regional, provincial or municipal level, alone or overlaid with IED plants reporting NH₃ emissions.

Select a view to compare the distribution of funds with the presence of intensive livestock plants.

E-PRTR (European Emissions Register) · 2024

Environmental impacts

Plants subject to the E-PRTR Regulation are required to declare their emissions to air, water and soil annually. For intensive livestock plants the dominant parameter is ammonia (NH₃): it contributes to soil acidification, the formation of secondary particulate matter (PM₂.₅) and eutrophication of surface waters.

Greenhouse gases — mainly methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) — affect the climate balance with long-term effects. Select a sub-view to explore the declarations by plant.

For a reading of this data, see Analysis → E-PRTR/IED → Environmental Impacts.

Sources

Official EEA/ISPRA data

Sources: IED Installations (F6) + Air Releases Facilities (F1_4) — European Environment Agency (EEA) / ISPRA, ver. 16.0, February 2026

Reference year: 2024

Plants represented: 1,242 intensive livestock plants (poultry and pigs)

Farms — E-PRTR thresholds: poultry >40,000 places · pigs >2,000 production places · sows >750 places

The Plants, Greenhouse Gases and Inspections views represent farms associated with native IED codes 6.6(a), 6.6(b) and 6.6(c). In the NH₃ view, a selector can add 63 E-PRTR sector 7 declarations with no associated livestock IED 6.6 code. The same source also includes 218 processing and aquaculture plants, which do not appear in these views. Details are provided in Open Data and Methodology.

MapTheFood — Interactive map of Italian agrifood plants