Gestation crates for breeding sows confine animals in spaces too small to turn around — reform campaigns have achieved significant progress but the practice persists globally.
Gestation crates represent one of the most vivid examples of farm animal welfare failure — sows unable to turn around for months at a time, experiencing muscular atrophy and profound frustration. The welfare case against them is overwhelming and has been accepted even by conventional animal agriculture stakeholders who have committed to phase-outs. The challenge now is verification and global progress: corporate commitments to gestation-crate-free sourcing are only meaningful if they are actually enforced, and the majority of global pork production — particularly in China, which produces over half the world's pork — still uses intensive confinement with no reform timeline. Consumer and regulatory pressure remain essential for continued progress.