Pony up cash to back your morals.
That's what U.S. pork packers are saying about the campaign the Humane Society of the United States has launched, persuading retailers to declare they want their pork to come from farms that don’t
use stalls or crates to house sows during gestation.
Two of the largest pork packers say if retailers do want stall-free
pork, they’re going to have to pay a premium.
Whether consumers will be willing to pay premiums is a big unknown.
Representatives from Cargill and Farmland Foods told Illinois pork
producers this week that they have no intention of asking them to stop using
gestation stalls.
“Cargill has no intention of requiring suppliers to convert to
crate-free gestation,” Amy Geiman, pork regional supply leader at Cargill Pork
told members of the Illinois Pork Producers Association here.
“We have been
changing ours, but that is not a statement on what we expect you to do,” she said.
Jesse Dohlman, a procurement analyst at Farmland Foods, echoed Geiman.
“If you can humanely raise sows in gestation stall housing or in group
housing, it does not matter. It is your decision and not ours,” Dohlman said.
He said it would cost $400 to $800 per sow to convert from gestation
stalls.
“We are not saying you need to convert and you don’t need to,” he said.
So far Farmland Foods is not providing products that are labeled as “gestation
crate free.”
Both said their companies will respond to consumer demand, said the
situation is changing rapidly and said farmers might eventually decide to
convert.
If customers want stall-free pork “we are going to ask a price for it,”
said Dohlman.
