In defense of pigs, a billionaire attacks McDonald’s
Carl Icahn criticizes McDonald’s for sourcing meat from breeders who keep full sows in cages that are too small.
American billionaire Carl Icahn, in New York during a conference, November 3, 2015.
AFP
Multi-billionaire businessman Carl Icahn, who is campaigning for McDonald’s to stop sourcing from certain breeders, is seeking to elect allies to the fast-food giant’s board of directors. “Carl Icahn has nominated Leslie Samuelrich and Maisie Ganzler for the 2022 election,” McDonald’s confirmed in a statement Sunday.
This appointment “is linked to a very specific subject on the company’s commitments relating to pigs, on which (the NGO) Humane Society has already made a proposal to shareholders”, specifies the American group, before ensuring to be a “leader” on this issue.
Broken promises
The billionaire criticizes McDonald’s for sourcing meat from breeders who keep full sows in cages that he considers too small. The company announced in 2012 that it would ask its suppliers to gradually stop using gestation stalls that are too small for a full sow to turn around. But the restaurant chain did not keep its promises, according to Carl Icahn.
Known for his propensity to enter the capital of companies to ask for radical measures and then reap juicy profits, he assured that it is not in this case a financial affair. “I really feel emotional about these animals and the needless suffering they are being subjected to,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday.
McDonald’s riposte
McDonald’s, for its part, indicated on Sunday that it only bought “about 1% of American pork production”. According to the group, its 2012 commitment has largely contributed to the fact that “30 to 35% of pork production in the United States” is now carried out with “group farming systems”.
“By the end of 2022, the company expects 85 to 90% of its American pork to come from sows that have not been in gestation pens,” McDonald’s says (compared to 60% currently , according to its website).
The fast-food chain also launches an attack against Carl Icahn, “the majority shareholder of Viskase, a company that produces and supplies packaging for the pork and poultry industry”. “Interestingly, Mr. Icahn has not publicly called on Viskase to adopt commitments similar to those made by McDonald’s in 2012,” the company notes.
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