The UK Public Underestimates the Scale of Factory Farming

Ben Lomas

October 2026

In Context

In our recent nationally representative survey of 1,007 UK adults, we asked participants some questions about their trust in, and knowledge of, animal agriculture.

What We Found

The results show that trust in the UK farming industry’s treatment of animals is divided. Participants also consistently underestimated the prevalence of factory farming practices, and there is a clear correlation between these estimates and participants’ trust in animal agriculture.

I trust the UK farming industry to treat animals humanely.
I find farming industry communication about animal welfare trustworthy.
I trust current food labels (e.g. Red Tractor, “farm fresh”, “all natural”) to accurately reflect welfare standards.

39% of people trust the UK farming industry to treat animals humanely, while 34% explicitly distrust it.

29% of people find farming industry communication regarding animal welfare trustworthy, while 32% distrust it.

Trust is the highest for food labels, with 48% trusting them to accurately reflect welfare standards, but it still falls short of a majority.

The UK government should support small-scale local meat producers instead of multinational meat companies.
I already knew that popular UK meat brands such as Richmond and Denny are owned by the Brazilian company JBS.

82% of people believe that the government should support local meat producers rather than multinational companies, but only 7% were aware that Brazilian meat processing company JBS owns UK meat brands such as Richmond and Denny.

We also asked participants to provide estimates for the proportion of pigs, chickens, and all farmed animals raised in factory farms, defined as “animals raised indoors for most/all of their lives, and where many animals are kept in a small space”:

Pigs
Chickens
All farmed animals

In each case, almost all participants underestimated the extent of factory farming practices: 97% for chickens, and 98% for pigs and all farmed animals. However, these estimates tend to rise alongside distrust in the UK farming industry.

Mean estimated share of animals kept on factory farms, by trust in the farming industry

 Trust (n=394) Neutral (n=270) Distrust (n=343) Actual*
Pigs 59% 62% 73% 96%
Chickens 66% 72% 79% 96%
All farmed animals 57% 63% 72% 93%

*Actual figures are the share of animals kept indoors for most of their lives, following the survey’s definition of factory farming. The RSPCA reports that 96% of pigs spend the growing/finishing period indoors, and that only 3.5% of chickens are reared in free-range systems, and less than 1% in organic systems, leaving around 96% reared indoors. The figure for all farmed animals is based on our own calculation.

The mean estimates for participants who expressed distrust in the UK farming industry’s treatment of animals are substantially closer to the actual figures than those of participants who expressed trust or remained neutral. This data suggests a link between trusting the UK farming industry to treat animals humanely and underestimating the prevalence of factory farming, which is consistent with the broad public opposition to factory farming practices.

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