'Corporate Raider' Carl Icahn Proposes Board Members to McDonald's... Demands Changes in Pig Farming Conditions

American activist investor Carl Icahn
[Photo by Reuters]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Carl Icahn, an activist investor on Wall Street in the United States and known as a "corporate raider," has proposed two director candidates to McDonald's. Having raised his voice for animal rights, criticizing the inhumane pig farming conditions of suppliers delivering meat to McDonald's, he appears to be expanding his front to the board of directors.

According to Bloomberg News and others on the 20th (local time), Icahn recommended Leslie Samuellich and Meiji Ganzler as director candidates at this year's shareholders' meeting. Icahn holds 200 shares of McDonald's stock worth about $50,000 (approximately 60 million KRW). McDonald's confirmed this fact and announced that it would review the candidates.

Icahn's proposal for the board came amid conflicts with McDonald's. Recently, Icahn emphasized that a supplier providing pork to McDonald's maintains the practice of confining pregnant pigs in "gestation crates" so small that the pigs cannot move or lie down comfortably, and stressed that McDonald's should improve this. Previously, in 2012, McDonald's announced plans to gradually require suppliers to phase out the use of such crates after controversy arose over animal cruelty due to suppliers raising sows in these crates.

On the same day, McDonald's refuted Icahn's claims, asserting that the industry is playing a leading role in moving away from such practices. They expect that by the end of this year, 85-90% of pork supplied will come from sows not kept in gestation crates, and by 2024, no gestation crates will be used in all pork supplies.

However, Icahn and the animal protection group Human Society pointed out that McDonald's is manipulating the interpretation of its previous commitments, not completely eliminating the use of these crates for all pigs, but only removing pigs confirmed to have maintained some gestation period from the crates.

In response, McDonald's raised questions, stating that it only demands this from McDonald's and not from Viskase, a pork and poultry packaging company where Icahn is a major shareholder.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.