Tracy Worcester: The Future of Food in Britain

About the Speaker:
Tracy Worcester, Farms Not Factories
Tracy Worcester has been active in the environmental movement for the past 25 years and is passionate about food sovereignty. She has worked on a number of films, including Is Small Still Beautiful in India (BBC World 2005), The Politics of Happiness in Bhutan (BBC World 2005), and Pig Business (Channel 4 2009). Tracy continues to use film‐making as a campaigning tool. Farms Not Factories is supported by numerous celebrities, and resources local communities with advice for opposing existing and proposed pig factory farms.

Farms Not Factories is the only group within the UK food movement with a specific focus on the issue of factory pig farming, around which it has developed an extensive knowledge base and communications expertise. Its major contribution are the Pig Business film series, and the #TurnYourNoseUp national media campaign. The Pig Business films enable viewers in over 35 countries to learn about the global industrial pig industry, and necessary responses to it. The #TurnYourNoseUp campaign, launched in May 2016, brought these issues to the attention of millions of consumers, through a series of celebrity-led films on social media, as well as features in national newspapers, television and online publications.

Unlike many other groups campaigning on animal factories, Farms Not Factories does not focus exclusively on a single outcome – instead seeking to inform the public by linking together the themes of public health threats, economic undermining of local farming, environmental degradation and animal welfare.

Coupled with a developed political and economic analysis of the causes and effects of intensive livestock farming, this means Farms Not Factories is well placed to contribute effectively to the international food movement organising around the principle of ‘food sovereignty’.