Factory Farming: Unveiling the Hidden Costs

Factory farming in Europe has reached unsustainable levels. Inflicting extreme and needless suffering on billions of animals, this harmful agricultural model is also fuelling multiple overlapping threats to our health and the natural world we depend on. But it doesn’t need to be like this. Alternatives are available, and a brighter future is possible!

As part of a broad measures needed to make Europe’s food system sustainable, resilient and fair, we urgently need to improve our treatment of farmed animals. Current EU animal welfare rules are outdated and unfit, and Europeans have time and again demanded better. It’s time for EU policymakers to deliver on revising the legislation and to finally End the Cage Age!

In March 2025, the European Environmental Bureau and The European Institute for Animal Law and Policy organised a joint photography exhibition in the European Parliament to address these challenges head-on. Showcasing the work of 12 photographers across 14 EU countries, this exhibition is an ambitious attempt to tell the interconnected story of animal, human and environmental suffering caused by factory farming, and the dangers this poses to Europe.

With thanks to the brilliant photographers whose work featured in this exhibition: Andrew Skowron, Havva Zorlu, Human Cruelties, Jo-Anne McArthur, Lukáš Vincour, Milos Bicanski, Pierre Parcoeur, Santi Donaire, Selene Magnolia Gatti, Stefano Belacchi, Timo Stammberger, and Zuzana Mit. Thanks to We Animals for supporting this event.