H.S.U.S. Wins Another One

LA Times, via nc links:

Do happier pigs make for better Spam?Hormel Foods Corp., which makes the gelatinous canned meat, is betting yes.
The Minnesota company said this week that it will stop using gestation crates by 2017. The crates, which are often so small that the pregnant hogs they house can’t move, will also be disavowed within five years by McRib pork provider Smithfield Foods Inc.
Seems like nowadays, with more consumers interested in the origin of what they eat, food purveyors and restaurant chains are taking care to highlight fresh, healthy – and presumably well-treated – fare.
Hormel keeps 54,000 breeding pigs at facilities in Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming, according to animal advocacy group the Humane Society. The group also used the opportunity to pressure other meat producers such as Tyson, Triumph and Seaboard to institute similar gestation crate phaseouts.

Gestation crates are already on the way out in Ohio because of Humane Society activism.  I expect the trend to continue as H.S.U.S. wins over the big businesses.  It is notable that the L.A. Times headline says Hormel to treat it's pigs better.  They might need to start treating their employees better, too.