The Case For Gestation Crates

Director of external operations of Iowa Select Farms (is that a fancy name for PR specialist) and hog producer Howard Hill gives the pork industry case for gestation crates:

Hill said the public, not to mention animal welfare activists, is misinformed about gestation crates. The crates have been criticized because the sow cannot walk around.
“The crates are for the protection of the sow,” he said. “Impregnated sows are very temperamental. They’re not like cattle. Sows can become aggressive and vicious. They bite and fight each other, and occasionally one gets killed.”
Hill and other defenders of sow crates point to greater productivity and efficiency in hog births and growth compared with previous generations.
U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics released last week show that although Iowa’s sow population dipped slightly in the last year, the average sow now produces 10 pigs per litter and the state’s hog population is at an all-time high of 20 million.
“I understand the desire for people to return to the bucolic days of farming in the past, where the hogs were raised in the barnyard, but the economics of the business just don’t support that anymore,” Hill said.
Instead, big operators like Iowa Select dominate the industry. The company has about 1,000 workers in 34 sow farms and 500 finishing barns.

In a society where people treat their dogs like children, it is going to take a heck of a lot to convince people that holding hogs a couple of months in pens in which they can't turn around are actually better for the hogs.  Ask Mitt Romney every time somebody brings up him taking his dog on vacation.  It may be the most efficient way to raise pork, but if the H.S.U.S. is able to convince people they shouldn't buy pork because of gestation crates, you're better off being a little less efficient.