Factory Farm Playset on show at the Science Museum’s Future of Food exhibition

Running until January 2026, the exhibition looks at how science is shaping the future of food, from the way it’s produced to how we eat. Our playset sits alongside a mix of interactive displays and technologies that ask visitors to think differently about where food comes from, and what kind of food system we want to see.

Challenging the factory farm myth

The Factory Farm Playset was designed to highlight the gap between the storybook version of farming we’re sold and the grim reality for most animals. It’s a scaled-down model of a real factory farm, showing overcrowded sheds, mutilated animals, and barren environments, a far cry from the happy farms we’re used to seeing in toy shops.

Over 80% of farmed animals in the UK are kept in intensive systems. They spend their lives in cramped, unnatural conditions with little space to move or express natural behaviours. This exhibit gives visitors a chance to stop and reflect on what that really looks like.

Why this is important

The exhibition is a great opportunity to get more people thinking about how animals are treated in our food system and to challenge the idea that industrial meat production is inevitable.

With support, we can push for a better food system - one that works for farmed animals, the environment and the people who produce our food.

But time is running out. The number of factory farms in the UK is growing fast, driven by both home-grown agribusiness and global corporations like JBS. We need as many people as possible to speak up and show the UK government that there’s no public support for the continued expansion of these cruel and unsustainable systems.