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Nebraska Farm Bureau official on ConAgra’s stall decision

Omaha-based ConAgra Foods is the latest food company to announce that it will eliminate gestation stalls from its pork supply chain.

The maker of Banquet, Healthy Choice and Chef Boyardee products says it wants suppliers to develop a plan by 2017 to eliminate gestation stalls, with a goal of being gestation-stall free by 2022.

An official of Nebraska Farm Bureau says that while his is not surprised by ConAgra’s decision, he is disappointed that the Nebraska-based company succumbed so quickly to pressure from the Humane Society of the United States. 

Nebraska Farm Bureau vice-president Mark McHargue says he and other Farm Bureau officials met with ConAgra officials earlier this year and were under the impression that ConAgra would be doing more research on the issue and would keep farm and commodity groups in the loop as they made their decision on gestation stalls.

According to McHargue, that did not happen.

McHargue, who runs a 750 sow farrow-to-finish swine operation near Central City, Nebraska, shared his thoughts with Brownfield’s Ken Anderson. 

AUDIO: Mark McHargue (7:50 MP3)