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Smithfield: vast majority of our sows out of gestation crates

The Humane Society is praising Smithfield's progress, and urging Hormel and Seaboard to step up their efforts.

January 6, 2015

Smithfield Foods has announced that 71.4 percent of its company-owned sows are no longer kept in gestation crates but are now in group housing. The previous benchmark was 54 percent in 2013.

The world's largest pork company has also announced progress on the issue with its contractors.

"We welcome Smithfield's steady progress toward group sow housing. This move makes the writing on the wall even clearer that confining farm animals in cages simply has no future in the food industry," Paul Shapiro, vice president of farm animal protection for The Humane Society of the United States, said in a press release. "It's long past time that Smithfield competitors like Hormel and Seaboard stop lagging on this issue and start moving into the 21st century."