Future of Food, a major new exhibition examining how science can help us find more sustainable ways to grow, produce and eat food, has opened at the Science Museum in London. Among its featured objects is World Animal Protection’s Factory Farm Playset.
The first ever hyper-real Factory Farm Playset was released to raise awareness of a typical intensive farm – precisely how 80% of the UK’s farm animals live today[1]. Contrary to the standard, familiar farm playset, it was brought to life with cramped, cruel and unnatural living conditions for farm animals – and a warning on the packaging of the harmful unseen methane and CO2 emissions that are contributing to climate change.
In addition to creating the ‘toy’, World Animal Protection devised and filmed a unique social experiment to see what happened when the Factory Farm Playset was presented to a group of young British children, with honest, unprompted reactions and a charming, inspiring outcome.
When provided with additional materials to play with, the children used their imagination, teamwork and sense of ‘how to make animals happy’ to fix it. The end result is a spacious, rural farm that’s kinder to the animals and to the planet, and is much more closely aligned to their vision of what a farm should be.
Lindsay Duncan, World Animal Protection’s Farming campaign manager said, “We are delighted that our Factory Farm Playset is featured in this exciting and important exhibition. It is inspiring to see the creative ways that people are coming together to raise awareness of the problems of unsustainable industrial food systems while exploring innovative solutions.
“From an early age we are presented with an idealised view of what farms are like and how animals live on them. When we showed children the reality, their reactions spoke for themselves. We can all learn something from this to help protect the planet for future generations.
“Animal agriculture is responsible for producing the equivalent of 7.1 giga-tonnes of CO2 per year – that’s 14.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions[2]. We need a reduction in meat eating and an end to factory farming to help avoid further damage to the climate. Eating less meat and growing crops for human beings instead of animals uses significantly less land and resources, drastically reducing emissions and taking the pressure off wild animals and their habitats”.
