Burger King, the world's second-largest burger chain, announced earlier this week that they'd begin buying cage-free eggs and pork. The goal for the next few months, Burger King said is for 2 percent of its eggs to be "cage free," and for 10 percent of its pork to come from farms that allow sows to move around inside pens, rather than being confined to crates.
The company said those percentages would rise as more farmers shift to these methods and more competitively priced supplies become available. While Burger King’s initial goals may be modest, food marketing experts and animal welfare advocates said yesterday that the shift would put pressure on other restaurant and food companies to adopt similar practices. "I think the whole area of social responsibility, social consciousness, is becoming much more important to the consumer," said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm. "I think that the industry is going to see that it’s an increasing imperative to get on that bandwagon."
nytimes.com
