This will have a huge impact. The company buys 3,000,000 pounds of pork a year and 11 million pre-cracked eggs.

"It's not easy to do," Bauccio said. "But I think that if we take a stand, we're big enough now and have enough purchasing power that the big producers will start to step up. It's time."

Bauccio said that his major problem has been to convince the large producers his company must deal with to get the volume of meat and eggs it needs to abandon their industrial ways. Two thirds of the pork sold in this country comes from sows that are confined for virtually all of their short lives. The liquid egg market is dominated by a few large companies.

Even when Bauccio puts hard cash on the table, some factory farmers are reluctant to change, because they want to avoid pressure from their peers who are fighting to maintain the highly profitable status quo. He even offered one conventional producer a guarantee that he would buy every pig raised humanely and without subtherapeutic antibiotics. That producer did not so much as respond to his overture.

"But we're going to get it done," Bauccio said. "Probably through lots of small, regional ranchers and farmers."

A few years ago, I witnessed the domino effect of Bauccio's big fork in the Florida tomato industry. Because of heinous labor abuses in the fields, Bon Appétit told the state's growers that it would simply stop buying Florida tomatoes until it could find a producer whose labor practices were transparently fair. A couple of smaller farmers came forward.

Not wanting to be put at a competitive disadvantage, particularly on socially aware college campuses, Bon Appétit's parent company, Compass Group, and its huge competitors -- Aramark and Sodexo -- insisted on the same standards. Seeing an opportunity, a few major producers changed their farming practices. Finally, not wanting to be shut out, virtually every significant grower came aboard. An entire industry was transformed.

If it can happen to a Florida tomato, it can happen to a chicken on a big farm in Iowa or a hog in North Carolina. And it can put humanely raised meat and eggs within reach of every consumer.

Image: Pressurepics/Shutterstock.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.