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For many people, the idea of a perfect farm is the one you often see on television commercials. These show fields of corn, one or two cows and sheep happily grazing, and chickens scratching in the farmyard. The reality of modern farming is very different in many countries.

Small farms do still exist, but the demand for cheap food has forced many farmers in Britain to use intensive methods of farming. Animals like calves, pigs and chickens are treated as if they were on production line in a factory. And so the term �factory farming� is now widely used.

One example of factory farming is the �battery hen� system. In the past, hens were kept in the open farmyard during the day. They were allowed to walk around freely and were given space to scratch and to stretch their wings. At night they were put in hen houses.

Today, most hens in Britain are locked up for twenty-four hours a day in wire cages or �batteries�, 50cm by 50cm, with sloping floors. Five hens are put in one cage and up to six cages are stacked on top of each other. Thousands of hens are kept like this in one building. There are over thirty-three million battery hens in Britain.

Of course, battery cages are very clean and hygienic. The hens are warm and safe from predators like foxes, but they are kept in a very small space. They can�t flap their wings or their claws are broken. There is nowhere quiet for them to lay their eggs. There is no straw for them to scratch or peck, so they peck at other hens instead and sometimes all their feathers drop out.

Most people prefer the idea- and the taste- of free-range meat from animals which are allowed to move around outside. They also prefer organic products which are grown without pesticides or fertilizers. The trouble is that food produced in these ways is expensive. If people want cheap food, factory farming will probably continue.