MasterChef NZ winner Aaron Brunet is among 40 high-profile Kiwis who will be locked up in a cage for 40 hours to protest factory farming.
The participants will be ushered into the Caged Beings social experiment with just 1.4sq m each in a cage that measures 7.5m by 7.5m.
The eventat 63 Great North Rd is being organised by SAFE and creative agency Manifest and will start at 10pm on Friday, ending at 2pm next Sunday.
Brunet has chosen to do it with his "passionate eco-warrior" daughter Ariana as he is psychologically fascinated and cares about the cause. He said factory farming had grown from people keeping animals in a down to earth way to being "taken to the extreme" with cruel practices employed for greedy profits.
Brunet urged people to vote with their wallets and only support food that was ethically produced.
"A lot of us are very disconnected from the source of our food. We see a chicken breast wrapped in plasticon a foam tray. That to us is chicken, we don't relate it to what is going on behind the scenes," he told the Herald.
"If I don't want to see pigs farmed in cages I can make an easy choice not to be part of it by how I spend my money. We can all do that every day.
"I don't expect everyone to go vegan, but if everyone ate half as much meat there'd be half as much factory farming going on."
SAFE reported that most factory farmed animals suffered anxiety, illness and degradation, with no sunlight, no room to move and no way to express their natural behaviours.
Brunet, 47, and Ariana, 17, have been vegan for two years since they watched the documentary Cowspiracy together. They will be joined in the experiment by actor Emmett Skilton from The Almighty Johnsons, three-time world champion street unicyclist Christian Huriwai, video blogger Sam Morgan, comedian Tian Tan and musician Franko Heke.
Participants will be "grain fed" with muesli and soy milk four times a day. They are allowed out to go to the bathroom at intervals and can take in a sleeping bag and a change of underwear.
Television presenter Suzanne Paul and bachelorette Alicia Cowan will pop in on Saturday and some high-profile MPs have been invited to moonlight in the cage.
SAFE spokeswoman Amanda Sorrenson said there will be an emergency escape button if anyone really needs to get out. But for the most part the experiment is meant to be uncomfortable.
"There will be very little going on for stimulation. Because that's more like the experience animals have in factory farms. Nothing is going on in their lives.
"But humans will do what humans do. And we can't predict what that might be."
Brunet once helped a friend kill a pig on their organic farm. He felt if he was going to eat meat he should experience the whole process.
"I had a different relationship to that meat than if I had bought it at the supermarket. I didn't really want to eat it. It got a lot more personal.
"If more people saw what I saw they'd have a different attitude."
Factory farming
105,495,606 = total estimated number of animals factory farmed in New Zealand
97,829,900 Meat chickens
3,152,483 Layer hens
570,023 Pigs
3,743,200 Fish
200,000 other poultry (turkeys/ducks)
