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McDonald's sets 10-year plan on gestation stall use and pork sourcing
Story Date: 6/1/2012
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Source: Rita Jane Gabbett, MEATINGPLACE, 6/1/12
McDonald's USA announced on Thursday a ten-year plan to work with its pork suppliers to phase out the use of gestation stalls in its U.S. pork supply.
The plan follows McDonald’s February announcement that it was committed to working with its pork suppliers to assess the current state of sow housing and to develop next steps for gestation stall phase out.
The goal of McDonald's ten-year plan, which was developed with input from its suppliers, pork producers and animal welfare experts, is to source all pork for its U.S. business from producers that do not house pregnant sows in gestation stalls by the end of 2022.
As an interim step, by 2017, McDonald's will seek to source pork for its U.S. business only from producers who share its commitment to phase out gestation stalls. To achieve this, McDonald's will work with producers and suppliers to develop needed traceability systems that will verify pork sourced from non-gestation stall supply chains and assess how to best support producers migrating away from gestation stalls.
Traceability is going to be a big issue as restaurant chains like McDonald’s seek to verify the birth circumstance of the pork they are serving. In a recent interview, National Pork Producers Council Vice President for Industry Relations Dallas Hockman told Meatingplace that compounding that challenge is the fact that most fast food chains are buying pork sausage which, like ground beef, is made from commingled trimmings. “There are no major packers today segregating product,” said Hockman.
Industry conversion away from gestation stalls also poses financial challenges, particularly for independent producers with small operations.
"Our approach seeks to build on the work already in place, and we are also sensitive to the needs of the smaller, independent pork producers in phasing out of gestation stalls," Dan Gorsky, senior vice president of McDonald's North America Supply Chain Management, said in the news release.
"This change is complex and will require additional resources. The ten-year timeline that McDonald's has outlined is necessary to research and identify better housing alternatives and ensure proper training of employees," the release quoted Temple Grandin, renowned animal welfare scientist at the University of Colorado and member of McDonald's Animal Welfare Council, as saying. "This is really good forward thinking, and I commend McDonald's for doing it."
McDonald's will continue to work with its supplier network and subject matter experts to refine and implement this plan.
For more stories, go to http://www.meatingplace.com/.
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