Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Icahn targets Kroger over animal welfare

Investor Carl Icahn who backs his complaints by buying up huge chunks of company shares is targeting Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the United States, pressuring it to take animal welfare more seriously.

A few weeks ago he targeted McDonalds Corp. to stop buying pork from farms where sows are housed in gestation crates. McDonalds countered that it’s sticking to its timetable to phase them out.


 Icahn said Kroger’s activity toward “creating meaningful animal welfare policies and verification methods is… totally out of step with consumer desire and current legislation.”


Icahn also accused Kroger of “side-stepping financial obligations to workers who don’t make a fair wage.”


He also claimed that his candidates for election to the board of directors have “superior knowledge and experience related to animal welfare.” 


Kroger replied that it intends to transition to pork from farms where gestation crates are no longer used by 2025.


In Canada, the pork code of practice for hog farmers recently changed is gestation crates deadline from 2025 to 2029.