According to a posting on The Ag Watchdog circulated by the Center for Consumer Freedom, welfare activist group Mercy for Animals, placed a billboard in Times Square pressuring Target Corporation to comply with the “Better Chicken Commitment”. This standard is based on the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) mandate requiring controlled-atmosphere stun-to-kill avoiding live-dumping and shackling. After 2024 the Global Animal Partnership standards dictate a maximum biomass of six pounds per square feet of housing and an enriched environment. By 2026, the standard requires a “slow-growing” strain. All of these measures will impact cost of production and if widely adopted will be inflationary increasing prices paid by customers and hence consumers.
To date Perdue Farms and Wayne Farms among the large broiler integrators have agreed to comply with selected parts of the standard. The organizers of the initiative claim to have received commitments from 200 food manufacturers, restaurants, food service companies and retailers to source chicken from suppliers conforming to at least the lowest standard of welfare as outlined in the GAP requirements.