Pork producers say U.S. consumers will pay more for the meat if the industry abandons the practice of confining sows to single stalls to appease food companies including McDonald’s Corp. (MCD) (MCD) demanding open pens.
The majority of sows in the U.S. spend time in solitary gestation pens, the National Pork Producers Council said yesterday in a statement. The industry moved to individual stalls to cut costs, so changing back will be expensive, said Ron Plain, a University of Missouri economist who surveyed producers that hold 63 percent of the nation’s sows.
“It costs more to make these changes and operate this way, and the question is, who’s going to cover these costs?” Plain said in an interview at the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, Iowa. “As an economist, I can tell you, ultimately the consumer is covering the cost of what they buy.”
McDonald’s, the world’s largest restaurant chain, and Kroger Co. (KR) (KR), the biggest U.S. grocery store chain, have urged suppliers to phase out gestation crates that animal-rights advocates contend are cruel. Producers say the method is more efficient and protects the sows. Pork council President R.C. Hunt, a North Carolina hog farmer, said that the changes would be “extremely difficult and costly.”
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