McDonalds Pushes For Gestation Crate Phase Out

If any farmers are looking to expand sow operations and are considering gestation crates, I think they are stubborn fools:

The effect on the industry will be huge, because in the world of big-time meat supply, there are two kinds of producers: those who sell to McDonald’s and those wish they could. When, in 1999, McDonald’s requested that its suppliers give caged hens 72 square inches of space instead of 48 (72 is still smaller than a piece of 8×10 paper), not a single factory-farmed hen in the country was being raised with 72 inches of space. Yet the entire supply chain was converted in just 18 months, and 72 square inches is now effectively the industry standard.

Switching from gestation crates to group sow housing is more labor- and capital-intensive, requiring changes that will take money and time, so an 18-month turnaround is unrealistic. But it’s likely that within a few years gestation crates will be history for most pork producers, and that’s a major victory.
The struggle against gestation crates in this country is a recent one. In 2002 the Humane Society of the United States worked to enact a ban in Florida, and since then has achieved the same in seven additional states. (Legislation is pending in eight more.) In the meantime, Whole Foods and Chipotle have banned the use of gestation crates in their supply chains. But this move by McDonald’s — the fourth-largest employer in the world, and one of the biggest pork buyers in the country — is to date the most significant step in that direction.

Once McDonalds and Walmart push for changes, they are going to happen.  It may tick some farmers off that people are telling them what to do, but consumers are going to win.  Anybody fighting the tide is in for a world of hurt down the road.  The HSUS has a lot of momentum, and the vast majority of people in town don't understand why animals would need to be confined in such small spaces.  They aren't going to believe most of the arguments they hear to justify those conditions.