We must act now to avert farmageddon. Here are some quick and easy actions that you can take to help kick-start a food revolution.

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Fix your food

Most of us have three great opportunities every day to help create a kinder, saner food system. The way we shop and eat can change farming methods for the better. Here are some simple tips for meat eaters:

1. Shop smart

   Choose meat and dairy products from farms, not factories. Look for products with labels such as ‘free-range’, ‘pasture-reared’ or ‘outdoor-reared’ labels. Avoid meat with labels like ‘farm fresh’, ‘country fresh’, ‘natural’, or just ‘corn-fed’. Find out more about shopping smart.

2. Choose local

   It makes sense to choose local meat and dairy. It may still have been factory farmed (so choose carefully), but it’s often easier to find out what’s going on with your food if it’s produced closer to home than if it’s part of a global system.

3. Love leftovers

   Wasting less meat and dairy is a simple and cost-effective way to kick-start a food revolution. Given the vast resources that go into producing these products, cutting waste is particularly important. Love your leftovers!

4. Avoid overeating

   There is strong evidence that we consume too much meat and dairy – particularly in the developed world – and it’s affecting our health. Avoiding the overeating of meat and dairy products is a win-win; it’s good for our wallets, waistlines and the world.

Read the book

Share these shocking Farmageddon stats

• A staggering ~70 billion farm animals are reared worldwide for food every year
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• Two out of every three farm animals in the world (~50 billion/year) are now factory farmed
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• Factory farming is the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet #FactoryFarmingFail
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• Globally, 70% of poultry meat, 50% of pork, 40% of beef and 60% of eggs are factory farmed
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• In the UK, 80% of chickens, 45% of laying hens and 75% of breeding pigs are factory farmed
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• Factory-farmed animals often fed human-edible food – crazy when ~1bn people go hungry!
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• 1/3 of world's cereal harvest fed to factory-farmed animals – this could feed ~3bn people!
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• Most soy is fed to factory-farmed animals (as soymeal); this could feed a billion people
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• Factory farms waste food – give 100 calories to livestock and get back 30 as meat or milk!
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• 1/3 world’s fish catch never reaches humans – much is fed to farmed fish, pigs and poultry
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• The UN estimates that a third of the world's food is wasted, at a cost of US$750 billion
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• UK wastes meat equivalent of 110 million farm animals per year, valued at £2.4 billion
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• Globally, meat equivalent of 12bn farm animals is wasted every year (worth US$486 billion)
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• Globally, 59 million cattle, 270 million pigs and 11 billion+ chickens wasted every year
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• 2–5 tonnes wild fish produce just 1 tonne farmed carnivorous fish e.g. salmon/trout/halibut
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• Globally, area of forest half size of UK cleared yearly, mainly for animal feed/ranching
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• Livestock industry creates ~14.5% of human GHGs – more than our cars, planes and trains!
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• With factory farming as the engine room, livestock numbers are set to double by 2050
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• Factory farming breaks link between livestock + land – animals moved from pasture to sheds
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• Factory farming drives up food prices by increasing demand for staple foods like cereals
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• Factory farms encourage disease. Serious Salmonella strains 6x more likely from caged eggs
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• 2/3 of UK chickens found to be contaminated with campylobacter, a cause of food poisoning
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• Factory-farmed animals are more susceptible to infection and disease due to stress
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• Half of all antibiotics are used on farm animals, mainly to ward off disease (80% in USA)
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• Overuse of antibiotics for farm animals = more drug-resistant superbugs
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• Cramped conditions on factory farms encourage the spread of diseases, such as avian flu
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• Meat produced on factory farms has more sat fat and less protein than higher-welfare meat
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• A factory-farmed chicken has nearly 3x more fat and 1/3 less protein than 40 years ago
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• Easy access to 'cheap' meat is causing a worldwide epidemic of obesity-related diseases
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• 1kg chicken uses 22 baths of water; 1kg pork 27 baths; 1kg beef 90 baths – thirsty work!
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• 1 tonne intensively farmed US maize (a staple feed crop) takes ~1 barrel of oil to produce
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• Low-input, organic farming is nearly always more energy-efficient than factory farming
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• Vast areas of land are used for chemical-intensive mono-crops (grown for animal feed)
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• Many common UK bird species have declined or even disappeared due to intensive farming
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• Scotland's fish farming creates as much nitrogen as yearly sewage from 3.2 million people
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• EU factory farmed chickens typically get a living space smaller than an A4 sheet of paper
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• UK dairy cows usually culled after 3rd lactation (~3 years old). A cow can live for 20 years
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• Factory-farmed piglets are often castrated, tail-docked and teeth-clipped w/o pain relief
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• 50,000 salmon can occupy a sea cage, often swimming in circles like caged zoo animals
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• The real price of farmed salmon includes the lives of 1,000 seals, killed at Scottish farms
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• Every minute, ~120,000 farm animals are slaughtered around the world #FactoryFarmingFail
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