Rule 14a-8 shareholder proposal · 2023
Humane World for Animals (formerly The Humane Society of the United States) at Sysco
Ask that within six months of the annual meeting, and omitting proprietary information, Sysco re-establish a policy for eliminating or reducing gestation crates in its pork supply chain, with measurable targets for doing so.
What happened
Result: Not approved at the annual meeting of 17 November 2023, as Item 5: 119,777,829 votes for, 267,642,643 against, 6,126,492 abstentions and 52,506,706 broker non-votes, as certified in Sysco's Item 5.07 Form 8-K. Sysco, which disregards abstentions, puts that at 30.91 percent of the votes cast; counting abstentions in the base it is 30.4 percent.
Not approved. The Accountability Board, which was not the proponent, told Sysco stockholders it would vote for the proposal. Sysco's board opposed it on the ground that as a foodservice distributor it does not own, raise, breed, process or transport live animals and can influence welfare practices only within the limits of supply availability and customer preference.