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Rows of breeding sows lying in narrow metal gestation stalls inside a dim pig barn

Pigs · Virginia, United States

Inside Smithfield: Gestation Crates at the World's Largest Pork Producer

In 2007 Smithfield Foods promised to phase out gestation crates within ten years. Three years later, an undercover investigation at one of its Virginia breeding farms documented more than 1,000 sows still confined in them.

2010 · Reporting by Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)

Summary

Gestation crates are individual metal stalls that hold a pregnant sow in a space too narrow for her to turn around. Smithfield Foods pledged in January 2007 to phase them out by 2017; the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) reported that the company suspended that timetable in 2009. In late 2010 an HSUS investigator spent a month inside a Smithfield breeding facility in Waverly, Virginia, and documented sows in crates, untreated injuries and rough handling.

0
Year Smithfield pledged to phase out gestation crates
0,000+
Sows in crates at the Virginia farm, per HSUS (2010)
0
Year sow stalls became illegal in Britain
0
US Supreme Court upheld California's Proposition 12
Rows of breeding sows lying in narrow metal gestation stalls inside a dim pig barn
Rows of breeding sows lying in narrow metal gestation stalls inside a dim pig barn. Illustrative photo — not footage from the investigation.

Part 1

What the 2010 investigation recorded

For about a month in late 2010, an HSUS investigator worked inside a breeding facility in Waverly, Virginia, operated by Murphy-Brown, Smithfield's hog-production subsidiary at the time. The group's report, released in December 2010, describes more than 1,000 pregnant sows housed in individual gestation crates.

The report documents sows with untreated wounds and sores and animals handled roughly by workers. These are the investigating organisation's own findings and footage; they were not the outcome of a court case or a government inspection.

Part 2

A pledge, a pause and a partial transition

Smithfield first pledged to phase out gestation crates in January 2007, on a ten-year timetable. According to the HSUS, the company suspended that timetable in 2009 during a period of financial losses, and it later recommitted to the 2017 goal.

In January 2018 Smithfield announced that its company-owned US farms had completed the move to group housing for pregnant sows, and said it recommended that its contract growers make the same change by the end of 2022. That announcement describes the company's own target, not an independent audit of every farm. Group-housing systems can also still use individual stalls for part of a sow's pregnancy, typically in the weeks after breeding.

Smithfield farms have remained a focus for activists. In March 2017 members of Direct Action Everywhere removed two piglets from Circle Four Farms, a Smithfield operation in Utah. In October 2022 a Utah jury acquitted Wayne Hsiung and Paul Picklesimer of the remaining charges; the verdict did not create a general legal right to remove animals from farms.

Part 3

Where the law has moved

Sow stalls have been illegal in Britain since 1999. In the European Union, Directive 2008/120/EC requires sows and gilts to be kept in groups from four weeks after service until one week before the expected farrowing date, a rule that applied to all covered farms from 1 January 2013. That limits how long stalls can be used; it is not a complete ban.

There is no federal ban in the United States. California's Proposition 12, approved by voters in 2018, sets confinement standards for breeding pigs and restricts the sale of pork that does not meet them. On 11 May 2023 the US Supreme Court rejected the pork industry's challenge in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, leaving the law in force. The ruling applies to California's law; it did not create a nationwide ban.

Part 4

What the science says

In 2022 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published a scientific opinion on the welfare of pigs on farm. It recommends avoiding the individual confinement of sows and moving towards farrowing systems without crates.

Industry-wide figures are harder to pin down. There is no official census of how many US sows spend their pregnancies in crates. A 2024 estimate from the campaign group Animal Equality put the share confined throughout pregnancy at about 60%; treat that as an advocacy estimate rather than a measured statistic.

Questions

Questions people ask

What is a gestation crate?
A gestation crate, or sow stall, is an individual metal enclosure that holds a pregnant pig. It is too narrow for her to turn around: she can stand up and lie down but cannot walk or turn.
Did Smithfield stop using gestation crates?
Smithfield announced in January 2018 that its company-owned US farms had moved pregnant sows to group housing, and it recommended that contract growers follow by the end of 2022. Group systems can still use individual stalls for part of pregnancy, and the announcement was not an independent audit.
Are gestation crates banned?
They have been illegal in Britain since 1999. EU law, with some exceptions, limits their use to the first four weeks after breeding and the final week before farrowing. There is no US federal ban, but some states, including California through Proposition 12, set confinement standards.

Sources

Where this reporting comes from

Figures on this page come from the official reports, laws and peer-reviewed studies listed here. Campaign groups are cited only for what their own investigations recorded.

Facts reviewed:

  1. HSUS — Undercover at Smithfield Foods (2010)
  2. Brownfield Ag News — Smithfield reaches sow group housing goal (2018)
  3. KSL — Animal activists not guilty after taking piglets from Utah farm (2022)
  4. Council Directive 2008/120/EC — minimum standards for the protection of pigs
  5. Defra — Level playing field for UK pig farmers (2012)
  6. US Supreme Court — National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (2023)
  7. EFSA — Welfare of pigs on farm (2022)
  8. Utah Public Radio — Animal rights group wants to end gestation crates (2024)
All investigations