---
title: "Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From"
url: https://waronfood.org/food-systems/inside-industrial-food/
category: food-systems
type: article
status: stable
published: 2026-10-07
last_updated: 2026-10-07
summary: "Pictures of industrial farming: canola oil plants, cattle feedlots, caged chickens, pig farms, french fry factories and algae blooms."
description: "Pictures of industrial farming and big food: canola oil plants, cattle feedlots, caged chickens, pig farms, french fry factories and algae blooms."
keyword: "industrial agriculture"
attribution: "War on Food (waronfood.org)"
---

# Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From

> Pictures of industrial farming and big food: canola oil plants, cattle feedlots, caged chickens, pig farms, french fry factories and algae blooms.

## Key takeaways

- The photos are real and credited. Six scenes no one can photograph freely are shown as clearly labelled AI-generated illustrations.
- Most cooking oil, meat, eggs and snacks in a supermarket pass through facilities built at this scale.
- In 2019 the four largest U.S. meatpackers handled 85% of steer and heifer slaughter and 67% of hog slaughter (USDA ERS).
- The EPA lists fertilizer and manure washing off farm fields as a cause of algal blooms and dead zones.
- Seeing the system isn't the same as judging every farm in it. Each section links to a guide with the evidence.

![Cattle feedlot from the air: thousands of cows packed into dirt pens, 1972](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/cattle-feedlot-aerial-1972-1600.webp)

*Cattle feedlot from the air, photographed by Gene Daniels for the EPA Documerica project in May 1972. Photo: Gene Daniels, U.S. EPA Documerica / National Archives, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AERIAL_OF_CATTLE_ON_HUGE_FEEDLOT._(FROM_THE_DOCUMERICA-1_EXHIBITION._FOR_OTHER_IMAGES_IN_THIS_ASSIGNMENT,_SEE_FICHE..._-_NARA_-_553047.jpg*

**This is what industrial farming and big food look like.** The photos below are real and credited, taken at oilseed crushing plants, feedlots, egg and pig barns, snack factories and farm fields. Each caption states only what its photo shows. A few places don't allow cameras, so they're shown as photorealistic illustrations marked **AI-generated**. Where a claim needs evidence, we link the guide that has it.

**Heads up:** some photos show confined animals and meat processing, including one of hanging pig carcasses. They're documentary, not gory, but they are stark.

The photo above is an aerial view of cattle on a feedlot, taken for the EPA's Documerica project in 1972. The EPA calls this kind of place an animal feeding operation: animals are confined and fed for 45 days or more a year, on ground where no crops or forage grow. The industry has grown since then.

## How canola and seed oil is made

Canola oil and soybean oil are made in plants like these. The seeds are crushed, a solvent pulls out the rest of the oil, and the oil is then refined, bleached and deodorized into the clear oil on the shelf. Our [seed oils guide](https://waronfood.org/real-food/seed-oils/) walks through each step and what the research says.

![Canola oil plant where canola seeds are crushed for oil, Bunge, Hamilton, Ontario](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/canola-oil-plant-1600.webp)

*Canola oil plant: Bunge's canola seed crushing plant on Victoria Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario, October 2023. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bunge_canola_plant.jpg*

![Soybean oil plant and grain elevator where soybeans are crushed for oil, Bunge, Destrehan, Louisiana](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/soybean-oil-plant-grain-elevator-1600.webp)

*Soybean oil plant: the grain elevator and soybean crushing plant at the Bunge Destrehan terminal in Destrehan, Louisiana. Photo: Spatms, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bunge_Destrehan_Export_Terminal_and_Bunge_Chevron_Ag_Renewables_Destrehan_Plant,_Louisiana_-_Grain_Elevator_and_Soybean_Crushing_Plant.jpg*
Palm oil isn't a seed oil, but it's the fat in a long list of packaged foods. In Malaysian Borneo, rainforest has been cleared for oil palm plantations, and mills process the fruit on site.

![Palm oil deforestation from the air: rainforest cleared for a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Borneo](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/palm-oil-deforestation-borneo-1600.webp)

*Palm oil deforestation: aerial view of land newly cleared for an oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo (2005). Photo: T. R. Shankar Raman, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oil_Palm_clearing_aerial_Borneo.JPG*

![Palm oil plantation surrounding a palm oil mill with smoking chimneys in Sabah, Malaysia](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/palm-oil-plantation-mill-1600.webp)

*The IOI Baturong palm oil mill in Kunak District, Sabah, Malaysia, surrounded by oil palm plantation (2015). Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:District-Kunak_Sabah_IOI-Baturong-Palm-Oil-Mill-01.jpg*

![Palm oil storage tanks at a palm oil mill in Sabah, Malaysia](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/palm-oil-storage-tanks-1600.webp)

*Storage tanks for palm oil at the Apas Balung palm oil mill, operated by SAWIT Kinabalu, in Balung, Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia (2014). Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balung_Tawau_Sabah_Apas-Balung-Mill-07.jpg*
## How french fries and chicken nuggets are made

Frozen fries and chicken pieces are made in factories, shipped frozen and finished in a fryer. Most of these plants don't allow cameras, so the freely licensed photos mostly show the outside, or the steel.

![French fry factory: outside the Lamb Weston frozen fries plant in Wisbech, England](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/french-fry-factory-lamb-weston-1600.webp)

*French fry factory: outside the Lamb Weston frozen french fries plant in Wisbech, England (2013). Photo: Bearas, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LambWeston_fabrikas,_Visbi%C4%8Das_(WISBECH).JPG*

![Commercial deep fryer full of french fries in a fry shop](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/deep-fryer-french-fries-1600.webp)

*Deep fryer and French fries in a chip shop in Belgium (2013). Photo: Jamain, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deep_fryer_and_chips_J1.jpg*

![USDA inspector checking boxed frozen chicken breasts inside a Tyson chicken processing plant](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/chicken-processing-plant-usda-inspector-1600.webp)

*Inside a chicken processing plant: a USDA poultry grader checks boxed frozen chicken breasts for temperature, weight and defects at a Tyson Foods plant in Berryville, Arkansas, March 25, 2010. Photo: Bob Nichols, USDA, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:150th_Anniversary_of_U_S_Department_of_Agriculture-Historical_imagery_(20120105-OC-AMW-0507).jpg*

![Empty metal shackles on the overhead line of a chicken slaughterhouse](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/chicken-slaughterhouse-shackle-line-1600.webp)

*Empty steel shackles on the overhead conveyor of a layer-hen slaughterhouse, photographed in December 2009. Photo: Animal Freedom, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shackles_(4186771513).jpg*
To show what happens inside, here are labelled AI illustrations of a fry line, a nugget line, a deboning line and a fast-food fryer bank.

![AI-generated image: inside a french fry factory, how frozen french fries are made, with cut potatoes on conveyors going into a fryer](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/french-fry-factory-production-line-1600.webp)

*Illustration of inside a french fry factory: cut potatoes move on steel conveyors through a steamer and into a fryer, the way frozen fries are made. Photo: made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model, AI-generated illustration, https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/#ai-generated*

![AI-generated image: how chicken nuggets are made in a chicken nugget factory, with ground chicken pressed into nugget shapes, battered and breaded on a conveyor](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/how-chicken-nuggets-are-made-1600.webp)

*Illustration of how chicken nuggets are made: a machine presses ground chicken into nugget shapes, then they pass through batter and breading on a conveyor. Photo: made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model, AI-generated illustration, https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/#ai-generated*

![AI-generated image: chicken processing plant workers cutting raw chicken breasts on a long conveyor line](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/chicken-processing-plant-workers-1600.webp)

*Illustration of a chicken processing plant: workers in hairnets and cut-proof gloves stand shoulder to shoulder cutting chicken breasts on a long conveyor. Photo: made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model, AI-generated illustration, https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/#ai-generated*

![AI-generated image: fast food kitchen with a row of deep fryers cooking french fries and fried chicken](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/fast-food-kitchen-deep-fryers-1600.webp)

*Illustration of a fast food kitchen: a row of deep fryers with baskets of fries and breaded chicken in bubbling oil under heat lamps. Photo: made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model, AI-generated illustration, https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/#ai-generated*
## Cattle feedlots and meat packing plants

Here is where the meat in the meat case comes from. Concentration is the part you can't see in a photo. According to USDA's Economic Research Service, in 2019 the four largest meatpackers handled **85% of steer and heifer slaughter** and **67% of hog slaughter**. Our [food systems guide](https://waronfood.org/articles/what-is-a-food-system/) explains why that matters for prices and for resilience.

![Cattle feedlot in New Mexico with hundreds of cows in dirt pens](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/cattle-feedlot-new-mexico-1600.webp)

*Cattle in pens at a feedlot south of Portales, New Mexico, in October 2024. Photo: Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cattle_feedlot_south_of_Portales,_New_Mexico.jpg*

![Cattle feedlot in Canyon, Texas, with cows standing in dirt pens](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/cattle-feedlot-texas-1600.webp)

*Cattle at the Dawn Cattle Feeders feedlot in Canyon, Texas, June 2021. Photo: Preston Keres, USDA/FPAC, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cattle_in_Canyon,_Texas_(9383).jpg*

![Manure lagoon next to a cattle feedlot in Kansas, seen from the air](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/manure-lagoon-cattle-feedlot-1600.webp)

*Manure lagoon: aerial view of a waste lagoon beside a cattle feedlot in Kansas, from the USDA NRCS photo gallery. Photo: Jeff Vanuga, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NRCSKS02095_-_Kansas_(4371)(NRCS_Photo_Gallery).jpg*

![Meat packing plant: the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/meat-packing-plant-smithfield-1600.webp)

*Meat packing plant: the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 2022. Photo: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Smithfield_Foods_Pork_Processing_Plant_-_Sioux_Falls_-_South_Dakota_(52444701996).jpg*
![Slaughterhouse workers among rows of hanging pig carcasses in a meat packing plant, 1945](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/meat-packing-plant-pig-carcasses-1600.webp)

*Inside a meat packing plant: workers among rows of hanging pig carcasses in Los Angeles, around 1945. Photo: Los Angeles Daily News (UCLA Library Special Collections), CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pig_carcasses_in_a_Los_Angeles_meat_packing_plant.jpg*
## Factory farming: caged chickens, gestation crates and pig farms

Battery cages for laying hens and gestation crates for sows are the images most people picture when they hear "factory farm". Two of these photos come from animal-welfare investigations. They show conditions at those farms on those dates, not every farm. Our [egg label guide](https://waronfood.org/local-food/pasture-raised-vs-free-range/) explains what "cage-free", "free-range" and "pasture-raised" legally mean.

![Caged chickens crammed into wire battery cages at a commercial egg farm](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/caged-chickens-battery-cages-1600.webp)

*Hens crammed into wire battery cages at a commercial egg farm, photographed during a 2018 animal-welfare investigation. Photo: Lever Foundation, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Subway_egg_supplier_investigation_-_birds_crammed_in_cages.jpg*

![Egg farm with laying hens in stacked wire battery cages](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/egg-farm-battery-cages-1600.webp)

*Laying hens in stacked wire cages at an Ohio egg farm, photographed during a 2004 Mercy For Animals investigation. Photo: Mercy For Animals, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:R2-011-4_(4012951372).jpg*

![Pig gestation crates: sows confined in rows of narrow metal crates on a pig farm](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/pig-gestation-crates-1600.webp)

*Sows confined in individual metal gestation crates at a U.S. pig farm, photographed during a 2009 Mercy For Animals investigation. Photo: Mercy For Animals, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1.3_GestationWideView_(4099652852).jpg*

![Chicken farm: thousands of young chickens crowded on the floor of a broiler house](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/chicken-farm-broiler-house-1600.webp)

*Chicken farm: young chickens crowd the floor of a broiler house, photographed by USDA NRCS in Texas (2009). Photo: USDA NRCS Texas, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baby_chickens_in_a_grower_broiler_house._(24993924222).jpg*
![AI-generated image: inside a factory farm pig barn, hundreds of pigs crowded in pens on a hog farm](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/factory-farm-pig-barn-1600.webp)

*Illustration of inside a factory farm pig barn: hundreds of pigs crowded in pens on concrete floors under dim lights and big fans. Photo: made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model, AI-generated illustration, https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/#ai-generated*
## How chips, Doritos and corn syrup are made

Ultra-processed food is made on lines like these: corn becomes dough, then chips, then a bag. Corn wet mills turn corn into starch and syrups, and sugar refineries supply the rest of the sweet. Our [ultra-processed foods list](https://waronfood.org/real-food/ultra-processed-foods-list/) shows how to spot these ingredients on a label.

![Doritos factory machinery where cooked corn is ground into dough for chips](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/doritos-factory-corn-dough-1600.webp)

*The Doritos line at the Strauss Group salty snacks factory in Sderot, where cooked corn is made into dough (November 2023). Photo: Nizzan Cohen, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strauss_Group_Salty_Products_Factory_in_Sderot_Doritos_Line_-_corn.jpg*

![How Doritos are made: tortilla chips tumbling from a drum onto a conveyor in a snack factory](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/how-doritos-are-made-1600.webp)

*How Doritos are made: tortilla chips fall from a seasoning drum onto a conveyor on the Doritos line at the Strauss Group factory in Sderot (November 2023). Photo: Nizzan Cohen, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strauss_Group_Salty_Products_Factory_in_Sderot_Doritos_Line_02.jpg*

![How potato chips are made: chips moving along a production line in a potato chip factory](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/potato-chip-factory-1600.webp)

*Potato chip factory: chips on the production line at the Strauss Group snack factory in Sderot (November 2023). Photo: Nizzan Cohen, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Strauss_Group_Salty_Products_Factory_in_Sderot_Tapuchips_Line_03.jpg*

![Corn wet mill plant that turns corn into starch and corn syrup, Lafayette, Indiana](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/corn-syrup-plant-corn-wet-mill-1600.webp)

*Corn wet mill: one of two corn wet milling plants run by A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company in Lafayette, Indiana, where corn is processed into starch and sweeteners such as corn syrup (2008). Photo: Jim Hammer, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wet_milling_facility_operated_by_A.E._Staley_Manufacturing_Company.jpg*
![Domino Sugar refinery and its sign on the Baltimore harbor](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/sugar-refinery-domino-baltimore-1600.webp)

*The Domino Sugar refinery in Baltimore, Maryland, January 2023. Photo: Acroterion, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domino_Sugar_refinery_Baltimore_MD1.jpg*
## Crop dusting, irrigation and algae blooms

Industrial agriculture covers a lot of ground. Planes spray fertilizer and pesticides, and irrigation pivots water huge single-crop circles. The EPA says nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilizer and manure can wash off fields when it rains. That runoff feeds algal blooms and dead zones, like the green water in Lake Erie below.

![Crop duster plane spraying a field at dusk in the Imperial Valley, California, 1972](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/crop-duster-plane-1972-1600.webp)

*A crop duster plane at work in the Imperial Valley, California, photographed by Charles O'Rear for the EPA's Documerica project in May 1972. Photo: Charles O'Rear, U.S. EPA Documerica / National Archives, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CROP_DUSTER_PLANE_AT_WORK_IN_IMPERIAL_VALLEY_-_NARA_-_548884.jpg*

![Crop dusting plane flying low and spraying a rice field in California](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/crop-dusting-plane-rice-field-1600.webp)

*Crop dusting: an agricultural plane flies low over a rice field in Glenn County, California, spraying fertilizer, June 1, 2024. Photo: Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Agricultural_aircraft_fertilizing_a_rice_field_in_Glenn_County-104A2037.jpg*

![Center pivot irrigation circles of crops seen from the air](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/center-pivot-irrigation-aerial-1600.webp)

*Center pivot irrigation seen from the air, photographed by John A. Kelley of USDA NRCS (2009). Photo: John A. Kelley, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_photo_of_center_pivot_irrigations_systems_(9364).jpg*

![AI-generated image: fertilizer plant with smokestacks and steam next to farm fields at dusk](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/fertilizer-plant-1600.webp)

*Illustration of a fertilizer plant at dusk: steel towers, storage domes and steam rising next to farm fields. Photo: made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model, AI-generated illustration, https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/#ai-generated*
![Lake Erie algae bloom from the air, green streaks across the western basin](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/lake-erie-algae-bloom-aerial-1600.webp)

*Lake Erie algae bloom: a harmful algal bloom in the western basin, photographed from the air on July 9, 2018 (NOAA GLERL). Photo: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (photo: Zachary Haslick, Aerial Associates Photography), Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harmful_Algal_Bloom_in_Western_Lake_Erie,_July_9,_2018_(28562018937).jpg*

![Green algae bloom in Lake Erie water along the rocky shore of Kelleys Island, Ohio](https://waronfood.org/img/photos/lake-erie-algae-bloom-shore-1600.webp)

*Lake Erie algae bloom at Kelleys Island, Ohio, photographed by T. Joyce of NOAA GLERL in 2011. Photo: T. Joyce, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, Public domain (U.S. government work), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Algal_Bloom_-_Kelly%27s_Island,_Lake_Erie_(6267288990).jpg*
## What you can do with this

The point isn't despair. It's knowing what you're buying. Every step away from this system counts, whether that's [buying a share of beef from a farm](https://waronfood.org/local-food/buy-from-farms/), choosing eggs by what the label actually means, rendering your own [tallow](https://waronfood.org/pantry/render-tallow/) or [baking your own bread](https://waronfood.org/sourdough/beginners-guide/). You don't have to do all of it to make a difference. Pick one.

All photos are listed with their authors and licenses, and the AI illustrations with how they were made, on our [photo credits](https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/) page.

## FAQ

**Are these photos real?**

Almost all of them. Every image is a real photograph from Wikimedia Commons, either public domain (many are from USDA, EPA or NOAA) or under a Creative Commons license, except six labelled AI-generated. Those show places that don't allow cameras: a french-fry line, a nugget line, a deboning line, a fast-food fryer bank, the inside of a hog barn and a fertilizer plant. They're marked “AI-generated” on the image, in the caption and in the file's metadata.

**Why are some photos old?**

A few come from the EPA's Documerica project in the 1970s and a 1940s newspaper archive, because they are among the few freely licensed images of those places. Captions give the year so you can judge them in context.

**Does every farm look like this?**

No. These photos show the large, consolidated end of the system, which supplies most supermarket food. Many farms sell direct and raise animals very differently, which is why our guides cover how to find them and what to ask.

**Can I share these photos?**

Yes, under each photo's own license. Credit the photographer as shown and link the license. Public-domain images have no conditions. The full list is on our photo credits page.


## Sources

1. [USDA ERS — Concentration and Competition in U.S. Agribusiness (EIB-256, 2023)](https://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/pub-details?pubid=106794)
2. [U.S. EPA — Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs)](https://www.epa.gov/npdes/animal-feeding-operations-afos)
3. [U.S. EPA — Nutrient Pollution: Sources and Solutions, Agriculture](https://www.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/sources-and-solutions-agriculture)
4. [War on Food — Photo credits (every image, author and license)](https://waronfood.org/photo-credits/)

---

Cite as: [Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From](https://waronfood.org/food-systems/inside-industrial-food/), War on Food (waronfood.org), last updated 2026-10-07.