Credits

Photo credits

Every photo on War on Food is a real photograph, except the clearly labelled AI-generated illustrations listed at the bottom. Photos are used under a public-domain or Creative Commons license (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA). Each caption credits the photographer and links the license and source. Captions describe only what the photo shows. If you're a rights holder and something here is wrong, tell us and we'll fix or remove it.

What it shows	Credit	License	Source	Used on
Chicken processing plant inspection 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.	Bob Nichols, USDA	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, What Is a Food System? From Seed to Your Kitchen Table
Chicken slaughterhouse shackle line Empty steel shackles on the overhead conveyor of a layer-hen slaughterhouse, photographed in December 2009.	Animal Freedom	CC BY 2.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Deep fryer with french fries Deep fryer and French fries in a chip shop in Belgium (2013).	Jamain	CC BY-SA 3.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
French fry factory (Lamb Weston) French fry factory: outside the Lamb Weston frozen french fries plant in Wisbech, England (2013).	Bearas	CC BY-SA 3.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Center pivot irrigation from the air Center pivot irrigation seen from the air, photographed by John A. Kelley of USDA NRCS (2009).	John A. Kelley, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, What Is a Food System? From Seed to Your Kitchen Table
Crop duster plane (1972) 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.	Charles O'Rear, U.S. EPA Documerica / National Archives	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Crop dusting plane over a rice field Crop dusting: an agricultural plane flies low over a rice field in Glenn County, California, spraying fertilizer, June 1, 2024.	Frank Schulenburg	CC BY-SA 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Lake Erie algae bloom at the shore Lake Erie algae bloom at Kelleys Island, Ohio, photographed by T. Joyce of NOAA GLERL in 2011.	T. Joyce, NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Lake Erie algae bloom from the air Lake Erie algae bloom: a harmful algal bloom in the western basin, photographed from the air on July 9, 2018 (NOAA GLERL).	NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (photo: Zachary Haslick, Aerial Associates Photography)	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Caged chickens in battery cages Hens crammed into wire battery cages at a commercial egg farm, photographed during a 2018 animal-welfare investigation.	Lever Foundation	CC0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Pasture-Raised vs Free-Range: What Egg and Meat Labels Actually Mean
Cattle feedlot from the air (1972) Cattle feedlot from the air, photographed by Gene Daniels for the EPA Documerica project in May 1972.	Gene Daniels, U.S. EPA Documerica / National Archives	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Cattle feedlot in New Mexico Cattle in pens at a feedlot south of Portales, New Mexico, in October 2024.	Quintin Soloviev	CC BY 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, How Much Is Half a Cow? Hanging Weight, Take-Home Meat and Real Cost
Cattle feedlot in Texas Cattle at the Dawn Cattle Feeders feedlot in Canyon, Texas, June 2021.	Preston Keres, USDA/FPAC	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, How to Buy Food Direct from Farms: Beef Shares, CSAs, Eggs & Raw Milk
Chicken farm broiler house Chicken farm: young chickens crowd the floor of a broiler house, photographed by USDA NRCS in Texas (2009).	USDA NRCS Texas	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, How the Food Supply Chain Works — and Why It Breaks
Egg farm battery cages Laying hens in stacked wire cages at an Ohio egg farm, photographed during a 2004 Mercy For Animals investigation.	Mercy For Animals	CC BY 2.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Pasture-Raised vs Free-Range: What Egg and Meat Labels Actually Mean
Manure lagoon next to a cattle feedlot Manure lagoon: aerial view of a waste lagoon beside a cattle feedlot in Kansas, from the USDA NRCS photo gallery.	Jeff Vanuga, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service	Public domain (U.S. government work)	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Meat packing plant (Smithfield) Meat packing plant: the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, July 2022.	Tony Webster	CC BY-SA 2.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, How the Food Supply Chain Works — and Why It Breaks
Meat packing plant, 1945 Inside a meat packing plant: workers among rows of hanging pig carcasses in Los Angeles, around 1945.	Los Angeles Daily News (UCLA Library Special Collections)	CC BY 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, What Is a Food System? From Seed to Your Kitchen Table
Pig gestation crates Sows confined in individual metal gestation crates at a U.S. pig farm, photographed during a 2009 Mercy For Animals investigation.	Mercy For Animals	CC BY 2.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Canola oil plant Canola oil plant: Bunge's canola seed crushing plant on Victoria Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario, October 2023.	Kenneth C. Zirkel	CC BY 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Seed Oils: What They Are, the Full List, and What the Evidence Says
Palm oil deforestation in Borneo Palm oil deforestation: aerial view of land newly cleared for an oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo (2005).	T. R. Shankar Raman	CC BY-SA 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Seed Oils: What They Are, the Full List, and What the Evidence Says
Palm oil plantation and mill The IOI Baturong palm oil mill in Kunak District, Sabah, Malaysia, surrounded by oil palm plantation (2015).	CEphoto, Uwe Aranas	CC BY-SA 3.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Seed Oils: What They Are, the Full List, and What the Evidence Says
Palm oil storage tanks Storage tanks for palm oil at the Apas Balung palm oil mill, operated by SAWIT Kinabalu, in Balung, Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia (2014).	CEphoto, Uwe Aranas	CC BY-SA 3.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Soybean oil plant and grain elevator Soybean oil plant: the grain elevator and soybean crushing plant at the Bunge Destrehan terminal in Destrehan, Louisiana.	Spatms	CC BY-SA 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Seed Oils: What They Are, the Full List, and What the Evidence Says
Corn syrup plant (corn wet mill) 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).	Jim Hammer	CC BY-SA 2.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Ultra-Processed Foods List: How to Spot Them and What to Eat Instead
Domino Sugar refinery The Domino Sugar refinery in Baltimore, Maryland, January 2023.	Acroterion	CC BY-SA 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Doritos factory corn dough The Doritos line at the Strauss Group salty snacks factory in Sderot, where cooked corn is made into dough (November 2023).	Nizzan Cohen	CC BY 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
How Doritos are made 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).	Nizzan Cohen	CC BY 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Ultra-Processed Foods List: How to Spot Them and What to Eat Instead
Potato chip factory Potato chip factory: chips on the production line at the Strauss Group snack factory in Sderot (November 2023).	Nizzan Cohen	CC BY 4.0	Wikimedia Commons	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Ultra-Processed Foods List: How to Spot Them and What to Eat Instead

AI-generated illustrations

Some places that matter to this story, like the inside of a french-fry plant or a confinement hog barn, have no freely licensed photos, because the companies don't allow cameras. To show what they're like, we use a small number of photorealistic illustrations made with an AI image model. They are not photographs of real places. Each is labelled “AI-generated” on the page, and marked in its structured data with the IPTC digital source type trainedAlgorithmicMedia.

What it depicts	Made with	Used on
Chicken processing plant workers Illustration of a chicken processing plant: workers in hairnets and cut-proof gloves stand shoulder to shoulder cutting chicken breasts on a long conveyor.	made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Factory farm pig barn Illustration of inside a factory farm pig barn: hundreds of pigs crowded in pens on concrete floors under dim lights and big fans.	made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
Fast food kitchen deep fryers Illustration of a fast food kitchen: a row of deep fryers with baskets of fries and breaded chicken in bubbling oil under heat lamps.	made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Seed Oils: What They Are, the Full List, and What the Evidence Says
Fertilizer plant Illustration of a fertilizer plant at dusk: steel towers, storage domes and steam rising next to farm fields.	made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
French fry factory production line 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.	made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From
How chicken nuggets are made 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.	made with Higgsfield, GPT Image model	Industrial Farming and Big Food: Where Your Food Really Comes From, Ultra-Processed Foods List: How to Spot Them and What to Eat Instead