The scientific evidence against gestation crate confinement and progress toward welfare-positive farrowing alternatives.
Gestation crate confinement represents one of the most thoroughly documented welfare failures in commercial agriculture. The scientific consensus that individually confining pregnant pigs for months causes severe welfare compromise through movement deprivation, frustration, and stress is overwhelming and uncontroversial. The welfare case for reform is unambiguous; the challenge is the practical transition to group housing systems that require different but manageable skills. The regulatory trajectory in the EU and increasing US states demonstrates that industry can transition successfully. Consumer purchasing choices and corporate policy commitments have been effective drivers of change where regulation has moved more slowly.