What is Pig Business?

Pig Business is a film and campaign produced by the organisation Farms Not Factories that supports people across the world campaigning against factory pig farming – A system that abuses animals, threatens our health by overusing antibiotics, destroys rural communities, and pollutes the air and water.

Campaigners can use any of our 21 language versions, or their country-specific version, as a tool to expose the true costs of factory farming and so empower their fight to prevent planning permission being granted for new factory farms and clean up or close existing factory farms.

In the films we explain the social, environmental and health benefits of locally produced pork and show how consumers can support sustainable, small scale, high welfare farms.

What is our aim?

To empower local campaigners living near factory farms and inform consumers, politicians, educators, institutions and government agencies of the true cost of factory pig farming.

How do we achieve our goals?

Direct action

Case study: Foston pig factory mega-farm campaign
Over 18,000 people have objected to the planned 25,000 unit pig factory, which would be only 150 metres upwind from a women’s prison and natal unit. Due to the risk of diseases spreading from the overcrowded barns, a recent Dutch government study recommends that intensive farms are sited a minimum of 250 metres from occupied buildings.

We have been asked to continue to support local opposition by organising public meetings, debates, media stunts, engaging high profile and celebrity supporters and screening our two Foston films, ‘The Dark Side of Factory Farming’ and ‘Dominic West Opposes Factory Pig Farm’.

If permission for this farm is granted, the gates are open for more pig factory farms in the UK! More information

Film production

Campaigners from across the world are asking for country-specific versions of Pig Business. We have recently completed ‘Pig Business in Romania’, ‘Pig Business in Holland and Hungary’ and ‘Pig Business in Ecuador‘ films with new local footage and case studies. We are also planning to make Brazilian, Chilean, Italian, Mexican, Spanish and Ukrainian versions over the coming months.

Please get in contact with us and tell us what the factory farming situation is like in your country or region, what is being done to stop it and who are the leading campaigners so we can contact them and coordinate work: info@pigbusiness.co.uk

We would like organisations and individuals that share our philosophy to join us and use our film as a campaigning or educational tool. We will support all community screenings – let us know how we can help.

Screenings and debate

Pig Business has been broadcast three times on Channel 4 (UK) and around the world; translated into 21 languages; had 110,000 views on YouTube; we know of over 100 international screenings; 278 schools in the UK are using it as an educational resource and there have been screenings at three high profile parliamentary events.

What are donations needed for?

Pig Business relies on the generous support of individuals and organisations to achieve our aims. We work on a local, national and global level, so you can be sure that your donation has a positive impact in UK, and makes a difference across the globe.

We guarantee that all funding goes towards our campaigning activities to improve conditions for farm animals, support small-scale, sustainable farmers and provide consumers with the information they need to understand the true cost of factory farmed pig meat and where to buy sustainably produced, high welfare pork.

Thank you for your support!

Jamie Oliver, TV chef and campaigner
“Before I started researching the subject, I never truly realised the appalling extent to which pigs – intelligent animals – were treated in certain parts of the world. I think we as meat-eaters have a responsibility to treat the animals we farm well, and that’s why I think Pig Business is an extremely important film. It really hammers home the darker side of the global pig farming industry.”

Zac Goldsmith, MP
“What is casually described as ‘cheap food’ is so often nothing of the sort. This powerful film reveals the full impact of factory farming on people and the global environment, and exposes the horrors experienced by the pigs themselves. It will leave people in no doubt about the true cost of factory faming.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jnr, Nephew of Jack Kennedy, founder of Waterkeeper Alliance and environmental lawyer
“This film exposes the truth about factory farming. It shows how it cannot produce a pork chop or bacon cheaper than a family farmer unless it breaks the law. Factory farming profits by externalising the true costs on to the public through sickness and degraded soil, contaminated water and air. In the process it destroys both the economy and democracy by concentrating power and money into the hands of a few giant corporations. Watch the film to see how we can reclaim control over our lives.”