The largest supermarket company in the United States, The Kroger Co., will be buying only pork raised on farms that do not use sow gestation crates.
It wants the sows that raise litters that will become pork in Kroger stores to all be group housed by 2025.
The move comes six years after Kroger urged its pork suppliers to speed up their transition away from using gestation stalls, but at that point did not set a timeline.
Kroger said many of its suppliers have already made the transition or at least have time-bound commitments to do so.
It was the Humane Society of the United States that pressured supermarket chains, restaurant chains and foodservice supply companies to demand that their pork come from farms that do not use gestation stalls.
The same campaign has had a similar impact on Canadian supermarkets, restaurant chains and foodservice companies.
