The proposal, submitted by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), represented the first time in American history that stockholders of a corporation have utilised the shareholder resolution process to offer a company praise for its corporate responsibility work.

As confirmed in the company’s latest quarterly report, the proposal passed overwhelmingly with more than 96 per cent of shareholders voting in its favor.

Cracker Barrel, based in Lebanon, Tennessee, has more than 600 restaurants in 40 states.

“That shareholders of an iconic middle-America restaurant chain like Cracker Barrel have expressed support for getting pigs out of gestation crates is further evidence that these cruel cages’ days are numbered,” said Matthew Prescott, food policy director for The HSUS. “We applaud both Cracker Barrel and its shareholders for supporting a shift away from this inhumane confinement of animals.”

Cracker Barrel is one of nearly 60 major food companies that has pledged to end gestation crate usage in their supply chains, with McDonald’s, Costco, Oscar Mayer, and dozens of others putting similar requirements on their suppliers.

Following this pressure, the National Pork Board recently reported that a majority of pork producers are in the process of switching to alternative housing methods that afford pigs greater freedom of movement. Meanwhile, many humane and sustainable farmers nationwide do not use gestation crates.