Industrial farming includes what's called 'factory farming'. Animals are cooped up for their short and miserable lives in prison-like buildings. Pigs (hogs), which naturally root around in forests, are kept in huge buildings so they fatten as quickly as possible ready for killing. Cattle, grazers of grass on the open range, are confined in feedlots all their lives. Calves may be kept in crates so they can hardly move. Chickens (hens) love scratching around for food on the forest floor, but are kept for egg-laying in tiny wire cages in huge batteries... The list goes on. Take a look at my stuff about cheap food and the damage industrial farming does.

Then there's arable farming with its huge machines, pesticides and artificial fertilisers which pollute both directly and indirectly...

So what happens when you add up the real costs of industrial farming? It seems it's just not worth it. When you add in all the costs of cleaning up pollution, repairing habitats and coping with sickness caused by farming, there's almost no profit at all (New Scientist, 18/12/99).

To find out more, visit

• the Union of Concerned Scientists: The Costs and Benefits of Industrial Agriculture Scroll down until you hit "The Costs of Industrial Agriculture" section
• the Centre for Environment and Society's The Real Cost of Farming
• CIWF "Eat less meat – It’s costing the earth"