The Canadian pork industry expects 60 per cent of the national sow population will be out of gestation crates by the end of the year, but in the United States it’s only 18 per cent of the farms and seven per cent of the sows.
Canada’s pork industry is moving to respond to customers, such as fast-food restaurant chains and supermarkets which don’t want pork from farms using sow gestation crates.
According to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture 10 states have banned the use of gestation crates for sows with 14 states in total passing and implementing some form of legislation that impacts livestock practices.
In 2002, Florida became the first state to pass legislation on the use of gestation crates with the other nine states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon and Rhode Island - following. Of those, Ohio is the only one to not have the rules implemented as of 2022.
The report also shows several other states tried, but failed, to enact similar laws.
New Jersey saw two bills regarding gestation crates vetoed by the governor in 2013 and 2014.
New York has seen several proposed bills since 2011.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in October regarding The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation’s challenge to California and Massachusetts legislation that prohibits the sale of pork from any animals, or the offspring of animals raised under the prohibited conditions, regardless of the state where the pork was produced.
