WTF is Factory Farming?

And why has it got us so mad?

What is factory farming?

Factory farming is the industrial system that treats animals as units of production – not as living beings – and is designed to maximise output and profit for Big Ag while everyone else pays the price.

Animals are bred to grow unnaturally fast, kept in extreme confinement, and processed through standardised, mechanised systems where speed and efficiency matter more than their welfare. The system drives deforestation, wildlife loss, water pollution, air pollution, and public health crises.

In the UK, 85% of farmed animals are factory farmed. Globally, the figure is 90%.

What Really Defines a Factory Farm

Factory farms are defined less by their size and more by how the animals are treated and processed.

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Animals are confined indoors, in barren pens or feedlots, or in cages with little or no space to move
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Natural behaviours (nesting, rooting, grazing, mothering) are impossible
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Growth, sleep patterns, reproduction, and death are tightly controlled by technology
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The animals are fed highly processed, often imported, cheap feed
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Animals are viewed as inputs, not living, feeling individuals

Our definition isn’t radical: it closely mirrors the 2022 Swiss national referendum, which described factory farming as “technologised animal husbandry designed to maximise animal product output, where animal welfare is systematically violated.”

Matthew Glover
Matthew Glover
Co-Founder

“If an animal product depends on confinement, industrial interventions, or mass throughput to be profitable, it’s factory farming - even if it has a nice label.”

Factory farming isn’t somewhere else. It’s here.

Factory farming isn’t something that happens “elsewhere.” It is part and parcel of the UK food system, and is woven into the landscape. You may not see it because it is concentrated in specific regions and hidden from public eyes behind sheds and fences. But it is all around us.

This is a system - and it has owners.

Just five companies – Cargill, Boparan, Sofina, JBS, and Cranswick – control the meat supply for virtually every major UK retailer. They bank their billions while continuing to harm animals, pollute our communities, and spread antibiotic-resistant superbugs which kill people. And they are given subsidies and grants – our money – to do it.

Why we’re pissed off

Factory farming isn’t a niche problem. It’s how most animal products are made and it…

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Normalises extreme cruelty
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Pollutes air, water, and communities
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Breeds animals for unnatural growth, yield, and productivity
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Creates the perfect breeding ground for diseases
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Drives antibiotic resistance – putting human lives at risk
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Is a major source of methane and other GHG emissions
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Is a leading contributor to deforestation and wildlife loss
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Pretends to be something it is not and sells us all a lie

Slingshot exists to expose what’s been hidden, challenge what’s been normalised, and make factory farming socially, politically, and culturally unacceptable.

This didn’t happen by accident

Over the past 80 years, UK farming has been radically transformed – not by tradition or necessity, but by deliberate policy and industrialisation. Mixed, small-scale family farms have been replaced by high-density, high-throughput systems designed to produce more meat, faster and they are mostly owned by billionaires, wealthy corporations, and hedge funds, many from overseas.

The Rise of Factory Farming

From fringe experiment to the system that raises almost every animal on earth.

How to Recognise Factory Farming

If you’re confused, that’s by design – and it’s not your fault. Big Ag thrives on feel-good language like “farm-fresh,” “high welfare,” and “British,” while keeping the filth, squalor, suffering, and pollution out of sight.

But you shouldn’t need to be Einstein to understand how your food was produced.

This guide translates factory farming systems into the claims, labels, and language you actually see on supermarket shelves.

What the packaging says: No welfare claim at all
What it actually tells you: Standard intensive production
Likely system: Factory farmed
What the packaging says: “British”
What it actually tells you: Country of origin, not welfare standards
Likely system: Factory farmed
What the packaging says: “Farm assured”
What it actually tells you: Legal compliance, not animal living conditions
Likely system: Factory farmed
What the packaging says: Red Tractor
What it actually tells you: UK minimum legal standards
Likely system: Factory farmed
What the packaging says: “Great value”, “family pack”
What it actually tells you: Optimised for cost, speed, and volume
Likely system: Factory farmed
What the packaging says: “Indoor bred”, “barn reared”
What it actually tells you: Animals kept indoors, often at high densities
Likely system: Factory farmed
What the packaging says: “Responsibly farmed Scottish salmon”
What it actually tells you: Country where farm is located, not welfare standards
Likely system: Factory farmed (at sea)
What the packaging says: “Free-range” (no further detail)
What it actually tells you: Limited outdoor access within industrial systems
Likely system: Factory-farming adjacent
What the packaging says: “Organic”
What it actually tells you: Lower stocking densities, slower growth, fewer drugs
Likely system: Less industrial, but not harm-free
What the packaging says: Named farm (that actually exists) + detailed, transparent welfare standards
What it actually tells you: Smaller-scale, slower systems
Likely system: Rare at scale

The Takeaway

Most labels use marketing speak to fluff up their minimum compliance, rather than explain truthfully how animals lived and died. When packaging avoids clear, specific information about living conditions – like space to move, access to the outdoors, growth rates, or how animals are killed – it’s a strong signal the product came from a factory farming system.

But even then, it’s not always clear.

You might be confident you’re buying meat, dairy, fish, or eggs from a small-scale farm that cares about animal welfare, but that product may still depend on factory farming infrastructure somewhere along the way. For example:

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Small farms sending animals to industrial slaughterhouses
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“Free-range” egg brands that still kill day-old male chicks
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“Responsibly farmed” salmon raised in overcrowded sea cages
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Pasture-raised animals bred using industrial, harm-causing genetics
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Higher-welfare labels operating within factory supply chains

If a system outsources the worst violence, it’s still part of the system.

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