McDonald's to end pork gestation crate use by 2022

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/mcdonalds-pig-crates-idUSL1E8GVQNV20120531

McDonald's USA said Thursday that by 2022 it will only buy pork from farmers and other sources that do not use gestation stalls for housing their pregnant sows.

In the shorter term, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based fast-food giant said that it would work with producers and suppliers to develop traceability systems to prove that the meat it buys are not from farms that use such structures.

The company also said that, by 2017, it would seek to source pork for its U.S. business from producers that are also working to phase out such gestation stalls.

McDonald's, the top U.S. hamburger chain by sales, vowed in February to work with its U.S. pork suppliers to phase out the use of gestation crates, which confine animals during the breeding and post-birth process. The policy shift will apply only to the company's U.S. business, company officials said.