Boston, September 20, 2024 – A proposal filed by Green Century asking Darden Restaurants, Inc. to eliminate the use of gestation crates received 19.3% of the votes cast at the company’s annual meeting on Sept. 18. The use of gestation crates, which confine pregnant sows for weeks or months at a time, is widely considered inhumane due to the physical and psychological suffering they cause the animals.
“Gestation crates present both ethical and reputational concerns for companies,” said Green Century President Leslie Samuelrich. “We hope Darden will take investor support for this proposal seriously and phase out gestation creates as soon as possible.”
Eleven states ban or restrict gestation crates, which confine pregnant sows in spaces that are roughly 2-by-7 feet – areas so small that they can’t even turn around. Group housed pork, by contrast, has breeding pigs kept together for a majority of each pregnancy cycle.
Darden Out of Step with Industry Peers
Darden is out of step with others in the industry by maintaining its reliance on gestation crates. In 2023, Darden competitor Bloomin’ Brands announced a goal for reaching 90% group-housed pork globally by 2029. Many other companies in the food industry have made progress on sourcing pork from suppliers that have reduced or eliminated gestation crates. Companies such as Kroger, Costco, Target, McDonald’s and Wendy’s have already shifted or are in the process of shifting to group-housed pork.
From 2016–2022, Darden publicized a commitment to source gestation crate-free pork by 2025, but without providing any progress updates. In 2022, a shareholder proposal asked Darden to finally provide one. In exchange for a withdrawal of that proposal, Darden published a statement admitting that it would not achieve its 2025 target but promised to “provide an updated timeline by the end of FY2023” for converting to group housed pork. Yet, that deadline came without Darden publishing any such timeline.
“Despite promising shareholders for many years that it would eliminate gestation crates, Darden still lacks a timeline for phasing them out,” said Annie Sanders, Green Century’s Director of Shareholder Advocacy. “It’s time for Darden to finally meet the standards of its competitors, investors and consumers by setting a target to drop gestation crates.”