“Significant investment”
As one of the top foodservice companies on the planet, McDonald’s is known to bear considerable influence on changes in production and processing methods and policies going back down its supply chains.
The company noted Monday its move also has the support of Colorado-based livestock handling expert Temple Grandin, whose animal welfare auditing system the company has adopted for its own meat suppliers.
“Moving from gestation stalls to better alternatives will improve the welfare of sows and I’m pleased to see McDonald’s working with its suppliers toward that end,” she said in the company’s release.
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As the harvest in southern Alberta presses on, a broker said that is one of the factors pulling feed prices lower in the region. Darcy Haley, vice-president of Ag Value Brokers in Lethbridge, added that lower cattle numbers in feedlots, plentiful amounts of grass for cattle to graze and a lacklustre export market also weighed on feed prices.
“It takes a thorough plan to address the training of animal handlers, proper feeding systems, and the significant financial investment and logistics involved with such a big change,” said Grandin, who’s booked to speak on animal welfare May 23 at a pork industry-sponsored event at Brandon, Man.
“I’m optimistic about this announcement.”
Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, was also quoted in the company’s release as praising the move, saying “all animals deserve humane treatment, including farm animals, and it’s just wrong to immobilize animals for their whole lives in crates barely larger than their bodies.”
