# A Story of How Farms Begin Across the world, new factory farms are appearing. Not in North America, where only 2% of animals are raised. Not primarily in Europe either. They are appearing in regions where the animal movement has little reach—Africa, Southeast Asia, Oceania. But how does a farm actually begin? It begins with a person. Someone who thinks, _“Maybe I should start a business. Maybe I should raise fish. Maybe chickens. I hear it can be profitable.”_ This idea rarely comes out of nowhere. Behind it are countless advertisements, training sessions, and industry promotions. Development banks, agribusinesses, and feed companies invest in convincing people that farming animals is a good way to make money. If you live in Europe or North America, you are unlikely to see ads for shrimp farming in Kenya. But those ads exist. They are persuasive. And they reach people who are searching for ways to provide for their families. So a curious person starts to research. They open a browser and type: - “Should I start a shrimp farm?” - “Is chicken farming profitable?” - “What are the risks of a fish farm?” And what do they find? Nearly all the information points in the same direction: animal farming is profitable, achievable, and worth pursuing. ## The Hidden Leverage This is where our movement has a chance to act. We cannot place advocates in every town or village where a farm might be built. We cannot halt construction everywhere. But we can meet people at this moment—before they invest, before they build, before animals are confined. We can make sure the truth is present. The truth is that factory farming is financially precarious, vulnerable to disease, and burdened by environmental costs. The truth is that it exposes farmers to risks they may not be prepared to handle—zoonotic outbreaks, activist campaigns, volatile markets. If that truth is available at the moment of decision, it can change the trajectory. ## Why Wikipedia Matters And this is where Wikipedia plays its unique role. It is the reference point for billions of searches. It informs entrepreneurs, students, policymakers, and now artificial intelligence systems. When someone searches “how to start a fish farm,” Wikipedia often shapes what they find. Edits made today can stop farms from starting ten years from now. They can protect animals in regions where no other form of advocacy is possible. ## The Hope Factory farms do not appear out of thin air. They are built choice by choice, person by person. And those choices are shaped by information. By telling the truth as clearly, accessibly, and globally, we can prevent suffering before it begins. That is the promise of efforts like Pro-Animal Wikipedia. They are ensuring that when someone asks the question, “Should I start a farm?” the answer they find includes the risks, the realities, and the truth. ## Related [[why donate to pro-animal wikipedia]]