Sow Housing
McDonald’s has long supported suppliers that
choose to move away from sow gestation crates
and tethers. Some recent examples of progress
by our suppliers include the following:
Smithfield Foods - In 2007, Smithfield
announced that it would phase out gestation
stalls in the U.S. market over 10 years. It
completed a three-year comparative study of
sow housing, including on-site inspections of
best practices and equipment in Europe, and
concluded that group pens are just as good as
individual gestation stalls in caring for sows. This
intensive research resulted in a state-of-the-art
system for group housing that offers animals the
privacy of their own stall or the ability to wander
with other sows in an open pen. The conversion
process is currently underway at Smithfield
company-owned farms