Ag News for America
Sonic, the nation’s largest chain of drive-in restaurants, has announced a new animal welfare policy.
Sonic says its goal is to eliminate gestation stalls from its pork supply chain no later than 2022. But the company also believes it may be able to meet that goal by 2017, citing the timeframe several large pork producers have set to be fully-transitioned to group housing.
Sonic says it is also phasing in the use of cage-free eggs.
One of the tactics employed by animal rights activists—groups that are trying to force stricter animal welfare rules on farmers—is to apply pressure on restaurants to change their food-purchasing policies.
Margaret Standing is the director of corporate communications for the Bob Evans restaurant chain. She says both HSUS and PETA have purchased shares in the company.
“We hear from them regularly. We correspond and we discuss—and as we always say, we are absolutely open to talk to them about any number of issues that they want to bring forward to us,” Standing says, “and then we remind them of our responsibility to this holistic approach—to our shareholders, to our employees, to all these groups. We can’t just make decisions in a vacuum.”
The animal rights groups are especially focused on egg and poultry production. They want Bob Evans to only purchase chickens killed by controlled-atmosphere killing—CAK—rather than electrical stunning. But a statement on the company’s web site says research comparing the humaneness of the two slaughter methods is inconclusive.
One thing that is for certain, Standing says, is that consumer awareness of animal well-being issues is increasing.
“They absolutely want to ensure that the company that they are buying their food from is doing the right thing,” she says. “I think it’s really about integrity and ensuring that your brand still has integrity. And so it’s a growing trend, I think, for guests and customers to be caring about this issue—and that’s why we’re really keeping a finger on that pulse.”
Standing says Bob Evans has an independent “animal well-being committee” that advises the company on animal welfare issues.
The national pork checkoff was instrumental in convincing McDonald’s to do a nationwide roll-out of the McRib sandwich this fall.
McDonald’s usually features the McRib only in certain regions of the country. But National Pork Board president Gene Nemechek says the popular pork sandwich is currently available all across the U.S., through November.
“We’re really excited about it because we think that it’s going to move some pork product and people are going to enjoy that pork at McDonald’s,” Nemechek says, “and we think it’s a great way for us to just have more product moving to the consumer.”
The McRib sandwich is still a limited-time menu item. Nemechek says he’d like to see it offered year-around. “We’d really like to see that stay on their menu year-around, because I think that people would learn to enjoy it and it would really help us as an industry.”
Nemechek says, as part of the McRib promotion, the pork logo is prominently featured on special tray liners at all participating McDonald’s restaurants nationwide.
Restaurant operators around the U.S. are feeling more optimistic about their store traffic and consumer spending, according to the latest survey by the National Restaurant Association.
That survey’s performance index for March was at its highest monthly level since September 2007. And operators reported net gains in both sales and customer traffic in March, the first time in 31 months that both indicators were in positive territory.
Food industry analysts say the improving restaurant business is encouraging for the beef, pork, dairy and fresh produce industries. While it’s too early to call it a recovery, they say there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel for the restaurant industry.
After two straight years of negative growth, the restaurant industry is expected to show gradual improvement in 2010.
That prediction is found in the National Restaurant Association’s 2010 industry forecast, which anticipates a two-point-five percent increase in total consumer spending compared to last year. The quick-service segment is expected to fare slightly better than the full-service segment as diners focus on value and specials. The report says one of the strongest growth segments in 2010 will be social catering, where sales could increase by nearly five percent.
Restaurant traffic declined by almost three percent this spring, the sharpest decline in industry traffic since 1981. That according to the market research firm NPD Group.
Restaurant traffic was down two percent at quick service restaurants, down four percent at casual establishments and down six percent at midscale restaurants. NPD says while checks-the amount paid for meals–increased by two percent during the study period , March 1st to May 31st, the rate of increase failed to offset the decline in traffic. The result was a one-percent decline in consumer spending at commercial foodservice during that three-month period.
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