Wednesday, September 9, 2015

McDonald’s to buy only cage-free eggs


McDonald’s has announced it will buy only cage-free eggs, starting the switch-over immediately in Canada and the United States, but allowing 10 years for a complete transition.

Chief executive officer Steve Easterbrook said it’s part of McDonald’s determination to be a "modern, progressive burger company."

In March he announced that McDonald’s will be switching to chickens raised without most antibiotics.
In April he said it would raise pay for workers at company-owned stores, which represent about 10 per cent of its domestic locations.

The decision to switch to cage-free eggs, known as free-range in Canada, signals a growing sensitivity among customers to animal welfare issues.

That has been fuelled in part by chains such as Chipotle that have made animal welfare standards part of their marketing.

Pork was hit over the winter with a campaign to get rid of sow gestation crates.

It’s part of a change of strategy by animal welfare groups, some of them vegetarians, to apply pressure to supermarket and restaurant chains to further their aims.

In Canada, the welfare goals run into supply management and farmers who are used to getting their full cost of production plus a return on labour, management and investments without having to meet any special retail-chain requirements.

There are, nonetheless, quota-holding farmers who do comply in return for premiums. The Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission has, however, declared a number of times that it opposes premiums.