🐄 A world in the atlas

Farm Animals

Reducing meat and choosing higher-welfare products cut the most suffering.

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Farm Animals

PHOTO VIA WIKIPEDIA, CC BY-SA

The picture

Tens of billions of animals are farmed each year. For most people, reducing meat consumption and choosing higher-welfare products are among the highest-impact everyday actions for both animal welfare and the environment.

The science

Farmed species like pigs and chickens are cognitively complex; pigs solve problems on a level comparable to dogs.

Worth repeating at dinner

Diet shifts are among the highest-impact everyday climate and welfare actions.

- Our World in Data

Pigs are highly intelligent and social animals.

- WCS

What they face

Intensive confinement

Crowded systems limit natural behaviour and welfare.

Our World in Data

Environmental cost

Livestock is a major driver of land use and emissions.

Our World in Data

What is already working

Higher-welfare standards

Cage-free and pasture systems improve welfare.

Plant-forward eating

Reducing meat lowers demand and impact.

Reasons for hope

Cage-free shift

Many companies have committed to cage-free eggs.

Meet them

Highland cattleDomestic sheepChickenDomestic pigDonkey

Small actions that reach them

Have one meatless meal
Animal agriculture is a top driver of land use, emissions and farmed-animal suffering.
~30 min
Save one meal from the bin
Food waste wastes the land, water and animal lives used to produce it.
~10 min
Teach a child one animal fact
Early nature connection is the strongest predictor of lifelong conservation behavior.
~10 min
Start composting food scraps
Food in landfill emits methane; compost returns nutrients to soil and cuts waste that drives habitat-clearing agriculture.
~15 min
Try a plant milk in one drink
Dairy has roughly 3× the emissions and far more land use than plant milks.
~2 min
Cook one local, seasonal meal
Seasonal local produce needs less energy, transport and packaging.
~30 min

People doing the big work

Our World in Data ↗

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