Hormel Foods Called to the Table on Pig Welfare

by Stephanie Feldstein · 2011-08-31 13:40:00 UTC
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Earlier this month, The Humane Society of the United States submitted a shareholder resolution asking Hormel Foods, producers of Spam and other pork products, to come clean about how many breeding pigs are confined in gestation crates and whether the company has made any progress toward more humane housing methods.

Gestation crates are cages so small that sows can't stretch their limbs or turn around. The extreme confinement causes physical and mental distress to the animals, and, with producers like Hormel Foods, the pigs spend nearly their entire short lives in these inhumane conditions.

Several major fast food companies and supermarkets have begun shifting toward producers who don't use gestation crates. Hormel's competitors have also started to change: Maxwell Foods is gestation crate-free, Cargill has phased out 50 percent of their crates, and Smithfield has moved 30 percent of their pigs to group housing.

How does Hormel stack up? Julie Craven, vice president of corporate communications, brags, "In 2012, Hormel Foods will be moving to group sow housing in the state of Arizona, which will give us a first-hand opportunity to learn more about this sow housing option. We will then evaluate and consider implementing group sow housing at other company-owned farm operations."

It's no giant leap for pig-kind, but sounds like Hormel is making the compassionate choice to start taking baby steps in the right direction, right? Not really. Arizona passed a law to ban gestation crates by the end of next year, so Hormel has no choice but to move to group housing in the state.

So, basically, they're doing the absolute minimum required by law. Will their next big announcement be that they're phasing out gestation crates in Colorado by the end of 2018, when the ban in that state goes into effect?

And, yet, Hormel says that they "have focused on being an industry leader" in animal welfare.

Hormel's own animal welfare advisor, Temple Grandin, has compared gestation crates to a person spending her life in an airline seat, and has said in no uncertain terms that "gestation stalls have got to go." A study from Iowa State University found that group housing is more economical, too. And a poll funded by the American Farm Bureau confirmed that the vast majority of consumers think gestation crates are cruel.

Josh Balk, director of corporate policy for The HSUS' farm animal protection division, stated, "Hormel appears to be behind the times on this issue, and shareholders deserve to understand what the company is — or isn’t — doing to correct its support for this unnecessary and extreme cruelty."

Tell Hormel that you're not buying their excuses: It's time to stop the suffering behind Spam.

Photo credit: Farm Sanctuary

Stephanie Feldstein is a Change.org Editor who has been part of the animal welfare and rescue community for over a decade, and most recently worked for an environmental organization.

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