McDonald’s. Walmart. Nestle. Just a few of the multinational corporations that have vowed to stop selling eggs from caged chickens. Major brands have also promised to boycott pork from pigs kept in narrow cages known as gestation crates. And this spring, Perdue announced it will provide natural light and more space to the 700 million chickens it raises for meat every year, among other reforms. These companies are responding, they say, to consumer demand. Can the marketplace change the face of industrial farming? How much are Americans willing to pay for better treatment of animals? Do people agree on what is most humane?
Our guests: Matthew Prescott, senior food policy director for the Humane Society of the United States, and Bailey Norwood, agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University and co-author of “Compassion by the Pound: The Economics of Farm Animal Welfare”.
