What if former factory farms could become places where we grow food rather than animals?
That question is becoming a reality at 1100 Farm in Iowa, USA, where a family has transformed a former intensive pig farm into a specialty mushroom-growing operation.
For more than 30 years, the Faaborg family raised pigs. Their farm operated as a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO), producing around 8,000 pigs a year. Now, one of its former pig barns has a very different purpose: growing specialty mushrooms.
The name 1100 Farm comes from the old barns, each of which was designed to hold around 1,100 pigs.
A different kind of farming
The transformation has been supported by The Transfarmation Project, which works with farmers to develop alternatives to industrial animal agriculture. The 1100 Farm is now also a demonstration hub, providing space for research and welcoming people interested in exploring different approaches to farming.
The change didn’t happen overnight. The collaboration with the family began in 2021 and the transformation has taken several years.
For the Faaborg family, this is not simply a change of crop. It represents a fundamental change in the future they can imagine for their farm.
As farmer Tanner Faaborg explained, their family was not an obvious candidate for such a transformation. They had spent decades raising pigs and had little previous connection with alternative agriculture. Yet, as he put it, “If our family can do it, any family can do it.”
From animals to food
Stories such as this are important because changing our food system requires more than asking consumers to make different choices.
We also need to create new opportunities for farmers.
Across the world, farmers are facing increasing economic, environmental and social pressures. Moving away from intensive livestock production can seem daunting, particularly when buildings, equipment and livelihoods have been designed around animal farming for decades.
The 1100 Farm demonstrates that those buildings and skills can potentially be put to new uses.
And mushrooms are just one possibility.
Former livestock farms could become places for growing vegetables, pulses, fruit, herbs, mushrooms and other crops. Buildings could be adapted for indoor growing, while surrounding land could be used for agroecological and veganic production.
Growing a different future
At VON, we believe the future of farming should be green, clean and cruelty free.
Veganic agriculture takes this idea further by growing food without animal inputs – no manure, blood, bone or fish fertilisers – while building healthy soils through plant-based composts, mulches, green manures, biodiversity and other ecological techniques.
The transformation of 1100 Farm is a reminder that agriculture is not fixed. A building that once housed thousands of pigs can have a completely different purpose. A family that spent generations raising animals can learn new ways of producing food.
If farms can change, our food system can change too.
The challenge now is to make these transitions easier, more accessible and economically viable for farmers everywhere.
Rather than asking what we have always done, perhaps the better question is:
What could this farm become?
Based on an article originally published by Plant Based News about the transformation of 1100 Farm in Iowa.