Fighting Factory Farms

For a just transition in livestock agriculture

Over the past few decades, the food system in Europe has become increasingly dominated by factory farms that confine tens of thousands of animals into tightly packed facilities. Misguided trade and agricultural policies have pushed farmers to adopt more intensive practices, driving an increase in the average number of animals per farm.

Yet many livestock producers are struggling to survive, and more and more smaller farms face closure.  This intensified  farming, compromising animal welfare, yields cheap meat for consumers  and hefty profits for agribusiness – but it’s people and planet who are paying the price.

European discussions on food policies often ignore the impact our reliance on factory farming for meat production has on the environment and on people’s health. The problem is that the “polluter-pays” principle is not applied to factory farms, and factory farms shift their pollution cleanup to taxpayers, increasing the burden on essential resources like water.

Other social and environmental costs are borne by farmers, consumers, local residents, and food sector workers – in the form of ill health and poor working conditions – and by the environment in Europe and globally.

We campaign for public policies that reduce the control of big business over the food chain, protect the environment and small farmers and support local communities resisting the expansion or building of new factory farms.

In particular, we aim at stopping the building of new and the expansion of existing factory farms in 5 European countries – Spain, Denmark, Northern Ireland, Poland, Hungary – and to take away the social license to operate of the industrial livestock industry.