Burger King starts humane purchasing campaign
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NEW YORK: In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a "historic advance," Burger King, the world's second-largest hamburger chain, said that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates.
The company said Tuesday that it would also favor suppliers of chickens that use gas, or "controlled-atmospheric stunning," rather than electric shocks to knock birds unconscious before slaughter. It is considered a more humane method, though only a handful of slaughterhouses use it.
The goal for the next few months, Burger King said, is for 2 percent of its eggs to be "cage free," and for 10 percent of its pork to come from pig farms that allow sows to move around inside pens, rather than being confined to crates. The company said those percentages would rise as more farmers shift to these methods and more competitively priced supplies become available.
While Burger King's initial goals may be modest, food marketing experts and animal welfare advocates said Tuesday that the shift would put pressure on other restaurant and food companies to adopt similar practices.
"I think the whole area of social responsibility, social consciousness, is becoming much more important to the consumer," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm. "I think that the industry is going to see that it's an increasing imperative to get on that bandwagon."
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Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, said Burger King's initiatives put them ahead of their competitors in terms of animal welfare.
"That's an important trigger for reform throughout the entire industry," Pacelle said.
Burger King's announcement is the latest success for animal welfare advocates, who were once dismissed as fringe groups, but are increasingly gaining mainstream victories.
Last week, the celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck announced that he would only use meat and eggs from animals raised under strict animal welfare codes. And in January, the world's largest pork processor, Smithfield Foods, said it would phase out confinement of pigs in metal crates over the next decade.
Some city and state governments have banned restaurants from serving foie gras and prohibited farmers from confining veal calves and pigs in crates. Temple Grandin, an animal science professor at Colorado State University, said Smithfield's decision to abandon crates for pregnant sows has shaken the pork industry. That decision was brought about in part by questions from big customers like McDonald's, the world's largest hamburger chain, about its confinement practices.
"When the big boys move, it makes the entire industry move," said Grandin, who serves on the animal welfare task forces for several food companies, including McDonald's and Burger King. Burger King's decision is somewhat at odds with the rebellious, politically incorrect image it has cultivated in recent years.
Its commercials deride "chick food" and encourage a more-is-more approach to eating with its turbo-strength coffee, its enormous omelet sandwich and a triple Whopper with cheese.
Burger King officials said the move was driven by their desire to stay ahead of consumer trends and to encourage farmers to move into more humane egg and meat production. "We want to be doing things long before they become a concern for consumers," said Steven Grover, vice president for food safety, quality assurance and regulatory compliance. "Like a hockey player, we want to be there before the puck gets there."
The changes apply to Burger King suppliers in North America and Canada, where the chain purchases more than 40 million pounds of eggs a year and 35 million pounds of pork, Grover said.
