On Friday, both Oscar Mayer Brand (owned by Kraft Foods) and CKE Restaurants (owner of Hardees and Carl’s Jr. restaurant chains) announced that they will require their pork suppliers to be 100% gestation crate-free by 2022.
The announcements by large companies to go gestation crate-free are still coming at a fast and furious pace. From January of this year until today, a total of fourteen major companies – retailers, restaurant chains, manufacturers, and foodservice providers – have committed to eliminating gestation crates from their pork supply chains.
Last year, MFA’s undercover investigation of Iowa Select Farms documented thousands of mother pigs forced to live inside narrow metal gestation crates barely larger than their own bodies. At the time of the investigation, Iowa Select Farms supplied two of the largest retailers in the United States, Safeway and Kroger, which have also recently announced their commitment to eliminate gestation crates from their supply chains. Kroger has even committed to accelerating its suppliers’ transition to 100% gestation crate-free pork.
We hope these most recent announcements will encourage other retailers, restaurants, and manufacturers, including Walmart, Kmart, Costco, Domino’s, Cheesecake Factory, Starbuck’s, Nestlé, Tyson, General Mills, and countless others, to make similar commitments to phase out gestation crates from their supply chains in the near future.
To help eliminate crated pork from the United States’ supply chain, ask your local restaurants and grocers about their animal welfare practices and urge them to move away from cruel gestation crates. You can also encourage friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to adopt a pork-free vegetarian diet. For delicious, cruelty-free recipes, visit ChooseVeg.com. For your free Vegetarian Starter Kit, click here.
