A few days ago I wrote a post about people buying humanely raised meat and dairy products
in which I mentioned the “Humane Farm Animal Care” program, which is an organization that has created a national certification for humanely raised meat, dairy and poultry products. The Humane Farm Animal Care program will certify producers who follow “standardized animal welfare guidelines.”
So I thought I should look up the Humane Farm Animal Care Program to learn more about it. The Humane Farm Animal Care Program is a nonprofit organization created to offer a certification and labeling program for meat, eggs, dairy, and poultry products. A consortium of animal welfare organizations fund Humane Farm Animal Care — some of these are the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of the United States, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Humane Society of Vero Beach, the Hawaiian Humane Society, and the Los Angeles Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The Humane Farm Animal Care Program runs a “Certified Humane Raised and Handled program,” which it describes as “an inspection, certification, and labeling program for meat, poultry, egg and dairy products from animals raised to humane care standards. The program is a voluntary, user-fee based service available to producers, processors, and transporters of animals raised for food. The purpose of the program is to provide independent verification that the care and handling of livestock and poultry on farms enrolled in the program meet high quality humane animal care standards.” These standards require that “livestock have access to clean and sufficient food and water; that their environment is not dangerous to their health; that they have sufficient protection from weather elements; that they have sufficient space allowance in order for them to move naturally; and other fetures to ensure the safety, health and comfort of the animal. In addition, the standards require that managers and caretakers be thoroughly trained, skilled and competent in animal husbandry and welfare, and have good working knowledge of their system and the livestock in their care.” The United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service Livestock and Seed Program verifies the inspection process of the Certified Humane Raised and Handled program.
Humane Farm Animal Care does allow beak trimming, but not debeaking — I think this means they allow farmers to cut off the tip of the top beak of chickens, but not remove their whole beak (debeaking is standard at most inhumane farms). HFAC does not allow cages — hens must either have nest boxes, housing systems, or be free-range. Pigs cannot be confined in gestation crates (warning: unpleasant pictures) — they must have farrowing systems,which are areas which have bedding and are big enough to allow sows to turn around,with large space allowances (this link has lovely pictures of pasture-raised pigs, which look fantastic), and older piglets (before they are slaughtered at six months) must have adequate housing — outdoor operations must provide adequate shade, rooting materials, and wallows, and indoor operations must not use cages, have adequate space for each pig, and adequate bedding.
If you are a producer and wish to apply for membership in the Certified Humane Raised and Handled program, click here. If your grocer or favorite restaurant doesn’t carry products with the “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” logo, go to the Humane Farm Animal Care action center which has a letter you can send them. If you’d like to donate to HFAC, please click here. You can also sign up for email updates about the Certified Humane program — just go to the bottom of the webpage — there’s a link.
I’m intrigued as to how the certified humane raised and handled standard compares to the American Humane Association’s Free Farmed certification, which I wrote about in my Clover milk post — they seem awfully similar. I wish I knew which one was more stringent. I’m a little concerned, because the article I read about ethical omnivores stated that the humane raised and handled certification does not stop farmers from docking pigs tails or trimming chicken beaks, which many animal rights advocates find appalling and hope to ban in the future. I’d really prefer to support a certification that many animal rights advocates do not find appalling. I spent some time surfing the web, but I couldn’t find any animal rights arguments to the certified humane logo, or suggestions of a better certification (please leave a comment here if you know of any).
Here’s the list of farms (and restaurants that serve products from those farms) that have the certified humane logo. You can also click here to run a search that will show you what local groceries in your area carry certified humane products — in San Francisco, there are numerous stores that carry certified humane products: Prather Ranch Meat Company, Andronico’s, Bi-Rite, Buffalo Whole Foods, Good Life Grocery, Harvest Ranch Market, Mollie Stone’s, Nature’s Stop, Other Avenues, Rainbow Grocery, Real Foods, Tower Market, Valencia Natural Foods, and Whole Foods (most of them just have dairy, none do eggs, a few do meat and deli items). Unfortunately, all the restaurants all seem to be on the East Coast, except for Incanto, which is in San Francisco. I’ll have to go check it out!
|
List of Certified Humane Raised & Handled Producers: |
|
|
Abbotsford Egg Products |
|
|
Against The Wind Ranch |
|
|
Alison’s Family Farms Turkey |
|
|
Anderson Ranch Lamb |
|
|
Applegate Farms Bacon |
|
|
Ayrshire Farm |
|
|
Blackwing Meats Chicken |
|
|
Black Mesa Ranch |
|
|
Blue Hen family Farm Eggs |
|
|
Braswell Foods Organic Cage-Free Eggs |
|
|
Caw Caw Creek Farm |
|
|
Ceago Vinegarden Eggs |
|
|
Cricket Creek Farm Cheese & Milk |
|
|
D’Agostino’s Pork, Chicken & Veal |
|
|
Digging Dog Farm Wool |
|
|
duBreton’s Natural Pork |
|
|
Echo Farm Puddings |
|
|
Egg Innovations |
|
|
Farmers Hen House Eggs |
|
|
Farmers Organic International Eggs |
|
|
Fiedler Family Farms |
|
|
Footsteps Farm |
|
|
Giving Nature Eggs |
|
|
Glaum Egg Ranch |
|
|
Green Pasture’s Farm Dairy |
|
|
Hearst Ranch Beef |
|
|
Heinen’s Fine Foods |
|
|
Hendricks Farms and Dairy |
|
|
Heron’s Court Farm |
(540) 687-5424 |
|
Hidden Villa Ranch |
|
|
Home Farm Beef, Pork, |
(540) 687-8882 |
|
Huntsinger Organic Chicken |
|
|
Knee Deep Ranch Beef |
|
|
Maverick Ranch Pork & Organic Chicken |
|
|
MBA Poultry |
|
|
Meyer Natural Angus Beef |
|
|
Mosner Veal |
|
|
Murray’s Chicken |
|
|
Natural Organic Food Group PEI Pork |
|
|
Nature’s Premier Organic Chicken |
|
|
Nellie’s Nest Eggs |
|
|
Nest Fresh Eggs |
|
|
Newman Farm Heritage Berkshire Pork |
|
|
North Country Smokehouse Bacon |
|
|
PCC Natural Markets Pork |
|
|
Pederson’s Natural Farms |
|
|
Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs |
|
|
Phil’s Fresh Eggs |
|
|
Polyface Farm |
|
|
Pop’s Farm Chicken (Canada) |
|
|
Prairie View Dairy |
Chenoa, Illinios |
|
Prather Ranch Beef |
|
|
Purely Natural/Pure Farms Bacon |
|
|
Radlo Foods Cage Free Eggs |
|
|
Range Brothers Ranch Pork |
|
|
Redwood Hill Farm |
|
|
Shelburne Farms |
|
|
Soncrest Egg Company |
(830) 672-4433 |
|
Stiebrs Farm cage free and organic |
|
|
Touchstone Farm |
|
|
Wilcox Family Farms |
|
|
Wild Oats’ branded organic cage-free eggs |
|
|
White Oak Pastures Beef |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Barton Seaver - Cafe St. Ex & Bar Pilar |
|
|
Todd Gray - Equinox Restaurant |
|
|
Brooke Vosika - Fifty Seven Fifty Seven |
|
|
Zak Pelaccio - 5 Ninth |
|
|
Hunter’s Head Tavern |
540-592-9020 |
|
Chirs Cosentino - Incanto |
|
|
Steve Connaughton - Lupa Restaurant New York, NY |
212-982-5089 |
|
Robert Weidmaier - Marcel’s |
www.marcelsdc.com |
|
Cathal Armstrong - Restauant Eve |
|
|
Brian McBride - Melrose |
202-419-6750 |
|
Cathal Armstrong - Restaurant Eve |
703-706-0450 |
|
Patricia Yeo - Sapa |
|
|
Josh DeChellis - Sumile |
|
|
Cesare Lanfranconi - Tosca |
www.toscadc.com |
|
Colin Alveras - The Tasting Room |
|
|
Chef Angelo Sosa New York, NY |
|
Categories : cruelty free, humane farming
RSS feed for comments on this post
Pearl
October 25th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
(if I’m hitting your blog too much, just tell me.
I *found* that applegate farms at this morning’s expedition to Wegman’s. I even wrote it down as a url I wanted to check out. (And I did … check this out: http://www.applegatefarms.com/philosophy.shtml … and note the ‘less meat, better meat’ section.)
This is where it goes back to the labeling. There was nothing on that package that said anything about this certification (that I could see), and believe me, I was looking. That’s why I decided to check its website in the hopes that I *would* find something on the topic. You know, one of my best friends has already been using Stonyfield milk for awhile now. I bet she knows nothing of any of these lists. I’m actually compiling a shopping list of these ‘more humane’ companies, sorted out by what is available at which different local supermarkets. I’m going to give to her … she’ll love this too. I’m still just floored that the logistics are finally workable. I can get both of our families switched over within just the next few weeks I bet.
Emily
October 27th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Excellent! That’s a great idea to make lists of what’s available at different stores. You’re really taking time to do this properly.
damaris webb
March 21st, 2008 at 3:00 pm
thank you Emily for creating this blog.
I found it very helpful, although I’m so much more confused about how organic compares to humanely raised.
I do appreciate that you’ve done the leg work of putting together shopping lists of certified humane suppliers!
Thanks,
Damaris
Boulder, CO
Emily
March 21st, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Dear Damaris,
Welcome to my blog! (And I love your name by the way — it’s beautiful.) I’m so glad you found this post useful (and like my blog!), but sorry to hear you’ve become confused about how “organic” compares to “humanely raised.”
I’m a little hazy myself on the exact differences between “humane” and “organic.” I suspect that where “humane” certification requires farms to allow their animals to engage in normal animal behavior — have enough room to turn around, build nests, etc. — organic certification requires no such thing. Perhaps I’ll research this issue and write about it sometime in the future
(And if any alert commenters would care to chime in about the exact differences, please do!)
My rule of thumb is that in terms of kindness to animals, “humanely raised” is better than “organic.” However, many organic rules have an element of humaneness to them, so organically raised meat/dairy products are far, far kinder to animals than nonorganic. So basically, if you’re at a store, I’d say that “humane” is better than “organic” is better than “nonorganic/conventional.” So if there’s humane milk to be had, buy that, if there’s none, buy organic. Purely from a kindness to animals standpoint, of course. Many people prefer organic milk to nonorganic milk for a variety of other reasons. (And of course the best product would probably be a humane AND organic product — though you usually have to pay a premium for it.)
Regards,
Emily
Sean
June 30th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Emily,
Our family is in a transitional phase, where some of our children want to become vegetarians, but they are not willing to commit to the dietary restrictions. Your website is a fountain of information about companies that limit, or entirely do away with, the cruelty imposed on animals. Thank you for all the time and energy you have dedicated, to research this wonderful information. I will visit again and again…
Sean
Emily
June 30th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
Hi Sean!
I’m so glad my blog is helping you find certified humane animal products! You and your family are making the world a kinder place for animals. I wanted to mention that your blog looks fantastic — I look forward to reading more of your posts on your experiences with not supporting horrific farming conditions.
Regards,
Emily
Tyler
July 18th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Beak Trimming is just a euphemism for debeaking. They are the same thing. It implies that the trimmed beak is similar to a trimmed toenail; however it is actually not trimmed at all; it is melted with a hot iron, permanently mutilating the beak and inducing great pain to the chicken. The practice is to keep them from killing each-other. The only reason they kill each other is because they are not given enough space to live.
Linda
September 18th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
You can certify that it is humanely raised and handled, but how can you ceritfy it is humanely slaughtered? Those sadists in the slaughterhouses are the ones I truly worry about!
Emily
October 21st, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hi Linda,
Well, I respect your opinion on slaughterhouses — I don’t think anyone would say they are places of joy and light. They’re kind of horrific. For me though, I figure the slaughterhouse is just one day out of a farm animal’s life — and in well-run slaughterhouses, the animals are kept very calm and killed in seconds. (Temple Grandin, one of my personal heroes, has written some amazing books on designing slaughterhouses so that the farm animals go through them in a stress-free manner and are killed humanely — she works for the slaughterhouse industry, but she has made the lives of billions of farm animals much more comfortable right before they’re killed)
http://books.google.com/books?id=az0fszrRaiQC&dq=Temple+Grandin&pg=PP1&ots=UHpCBpAo0x&source=an&sig=tVzEHbnhpnoejz2d110GzRW53fE&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPP1,M1
But it really appalls me more that some farm animals are kept in agonizing conditions for the entirety of their lives — years spent in cages they can’t turn around in. It breaks my heart to think of adorable calves unable to turn around for the entire 13 months they’re alive, after which they are slaughtered for veal (there are 1 million calves in the U.S. sold for veal a year according to Californians for Humane Farms). I think those calves should at least be able to turn around and frolic for those thirteen months before being killed quickly and humanely. At least the slaughterhouse is a quick death. For me it’s the far lesser of two evils. So it’s more important to me that animals are raised humanely rather than not exposed to slaughterhouses. Though of course, in the best of all possible worlds, animals would never be exposed to inhumane living conditions or slaughtered. Come the revolution . . .
Though of course, I’ve heard of horrible inhumane slaughterhouses, and I HATE the people who are responsible for them. How anyone could commit those kinds of atrocities astounds me. I think those people should be taken out and shot. Actually that might be far too good for them.
Kori and Sarah (mother and daughter)
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Dear Emily,
Just last night we went down to south beach to enjoy a nice dinner. shortly after we ate, we took a walk along the road and came upon a stand with a TV. it was playing a DVD called,”if slaughter had glass walls everyone would be vegetarian,” the short film showed animals being slaughtered while being fully aware. we were terified and felt bad. we woke up this morning and could not eat any meat.
We searched the internet for information on cruelty free meats and found your blog. we both read it and not only enjoyed what we got out of it, but also used the wonderderfuly helpful list you made while grocery shopping.
All thanks to you, Emily, we feel more informed, feel like we are helping the animals, and made a healthy choice as well! We shop at Whole Foods regularly. We asked an employee about the products sold at the store and he said, “all meats are cruelty free with an exception of kosher foods”. Would you be able to verify if this is true and if they’re slaughtered humanely? We’re a little skepticle.
fond Regards,
Kori and Sarah =)
Emily
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:19 pm
Wow! I am so very, very touched by your kind comment! I’m so glad my blog post could help you in any way! You guys sound really, really awesome.
Luckily, I can indeed help you about Whole Foods — they do have a nice policy about animals raised for meat — the animals are quite humanely raised (not as good as Animal Welfare Approved, Free Farmed, or American Humane Certified — if you can find those labels, those are definitely to be preferred) — but as you can see here, Whole Foods does have some humane standards for its meat products:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/meat-program-requirements.php
Unfortunately, Whole Foods does not extend its policies to dairy or egg products — ironically enough, buying dairy/eggs at Whole Foods is more cruel than buying meat products in terms of animal suffering — egg-laying hens and dairy cows are often the most abused animals in factory farming. The only requirements Whole Foods has for egg-laying hens is they not live in cages (which is good, but not great to my mind — it doesn’t mean they are given enough room to stretch their wings/aren’t debeaked, etc.), and dairy cows are offered no protection at all from Whole Foods. If you can handle it, I’d recommend looking for Humane Certified, Free Farmed Certified, or Humanely Raised Certified labels on all your dairy/egg needs as well.
I did a quick search on Florida (South Beach is in Florida, I think?) and it looks like you guys are definitely in luck in terms of humane certification labels (which makes sense, seeing as Florida was one of the first states to ban horrifically crating pigs so they couldn’t even turn around!). Anyway, here are the Animal Welfare Approved brands in Florida:
Beef from White Oak Pastures Farm:
available at:
A to Zinc (Hudson)
Abby’s Health and Nutrition (Tampa)
Abundant Life Organic Cafe (Palm Bay)
Ada’s Natural Foods (Fort Myers)
Adams Farm (Jasper)
Brooksville Natural Foods (Brooksville)
Debbie’s Health (Port Orange)
Diane’s Natural Food Store (Saint Augustine)
Discount Health Foods (North Miami Beach)
Economy H.F. Forest City (Altamonte Springs)
Evermans (Pensacola)
Greenspring Health Products (Clearwater)
Harvest House Market (Port Orange)
Health Shoppe (Jacksonville)
Healthy Solutions Natural Foods (Lake City)
Heath’s Natural Foods (New Smyrna Beach)
Herb N Renewal (Homosassa)
Lake Nutrition Center, Inc (Leesburg)
Mother Earth Natural Foods (Fort Myers)
Mother Nature’s Pantry (Saint Cloud)
Native Sun Natural Foods (Jacksonville)
Nature’s Harvest Market (Tampa)
Nature’s Market Inc (Melbourne)
Nutrition Cottage (Delray Beach)
Nutrition Smart (Tampa)
Nutrition Smart Trading Center (Lake Helen)
Nutrition World (Royal Palm Beach)
Peggy’s Natural Foods (Stuart)
Perfect Balance Organics (Weeki Wachee)
Regency Health Foods (Jacksonville)
Richard’s #7 (Englewood)
Rollin Oats Market (Saint Petersburg)
Staff of Life (Niceville)
Sunshine Health Foods (Titusville)
Sutone Inc (West Palm Beach)
The Green Bean (Spring Hill)
Wards (Gainesville)
Whole Foods Market (various locations)
Pork from Fudge Family Farms:
available at Watercolor Inn & Resort (Santa Rosa Beach)
Pork from This Lil’ Piggy Farm (Weirsdale)
Pork from Nature Delivered Farm (Plant City)
I also checked the Humane Certified list, and it turns out White Oak Farms is also humane certified (go White Oak Farms! Really going for the humane certification here) as are:
Eggs from Born Free Eggs
Also I checked out the American Humane Certified farms in Florida — there is one:
Eggs from Cal-Maine Foods
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like there are any chicken or dairy humane certified farms that have products available in Florida. I’d recommend minimizing your input of chicken/dairy products until you see any chicken/eggs/dairy products in the store that have a little “American Humane Certified,” “Humane Certified” or “Animal Welfare Approved” logo on them. I’d recommend trying out some soy milk or almond milk occasionally — Silk is a very nice brand!
(I feel like I should do a quick disclaimer here — humanely certified animal products come from animals that live their lives free of suffering on a day-to-day basis. They are allowed room to spread their wings/turn around in a circle, not be debeaked, engage in normal animal behaviors, etc. It does not mean that the animals aren’t slaughtered fairly unpleasantly at six months when they are basically teenagers, aren’t kept pregnant continuously, don’t have their male babies slaughtered horrifically upon birth, don’t have their female babies taken away from them a few weeks after birth, don’t experience unpleasant abattoir-like slaughterhouse conditions. Humane certification is a wonderful improvement on the horrific factory farming conditions 98% of the farm animals in this country experience, but it does still have some problems.)
Again — thank you so much for your kind words, and I’m so excited you’re looking into humane products! You guys rock!
wec
February 24th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
Do you have any more information about farms in Canada, particularly BC??
Thanks!!
Emily
March 12th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Good question! I did a quick search on the big three humane certification websites — Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Humane, and Free Farmed. Unfortunately it looks like there are very few humane producers in Canada, and none in BC itself. I’ve listed the ones I found in Canada below, along with the few I found in Washington, on the off chance they migrate across the border:
Animal Welfare Approved certification is now available to Canadian farmers/ranchers, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like there are any Canadian farms/ranches that are AWA certified yet. It is to be hoped that will happen in the future!
http://www.animalwelfareapproved.org/2009/04/01/animal-welfare-approved-program-now-open-to-canadian-farms/
Animal Welfare Approved:
Joann M. Hutton Ranch beef (Washington)
Purple Rain Vineyard eggs (Washington)
Certified Humane:
duBreton Pork (Quebec, Canada)
Wilcox Farms (eggs) (Washington)
Stiebr Farms (eggs) (Washington)
http://www.certifiedhumane.org/about/whoiscertified.html
Free Farmed certified:
Delimax and Montpak (veal) (Quebec, Canada)
(Oh my, I really hope you’re not a veal-eater. Though if you are, veal calves are apparently subject to horrific living conditions such as living in crates they can’t turn around in their entire short lives, so if you’re going to buy veal, please buy Delimax and Montpak.)
http://thehumanetouch.org/certified-producers
Gosh, I hoped that was informative if not tremendously helpful for you! If you could please call your local markets and ask them to start stocking some of these humane certified brands, I’ll be eternally grateful.
wec
April 3rd, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my question! It is very, very disappointing to hear that such a progressive country (an in particular the very ecologically conscious BC) has not adopted the Animal Welfare Approval program more widely.
My question was more for sourcing cruelty-free or humane dairy products. Though I am not averse to eating (some) meat, I could not eat meat if the animal has been subjected to inhumane treatment. And I certainly have not, and will not, eat veal or lamb!
I will begin calling local stores to see if they stock any humane products. Perhaps I can send you some information as I find it? If you feel it would be useful.
Emily
April 4th, 2010 at 8:29 am
Hi again wec!
So glad to hear you’re looking to source cruelty-free dairy rather than meats.
I would LOVE for you to send me any information you find on humane products in BC! Please, please do — even if it’s just farmers markets products.
dd
April 21st, 2010 at 8:59 pm
do you know if Straus family creamery is in the list of humane farming?
Emily
April 23rd, 2010 at 10:17 am
Hi dd!
Unfortunately Straus is not humanely certified. Though if Clover is not available where you are, I think Straus is the next best alternative — if you see their website, they’re not awful to their cows — they have a closed herd, it’s not a horrific place. However, Cornucopia claims Straus is “hard on the health and longevity of cows”:
http://www.cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/FarmID_107.html
Though the fact that Straus auctions off their cows when they no longer produce milk is an image I can’t get out of my head:
http://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/?id=45
“When a cow no longer produces milk, she is sold to a local auction house. From there the cow is purchased by a thrid party. A cow eats 90 pounds of food a day and drinks 25-50 gallons of water a day. Though it would be nice to be able to keep them all, it would be financially unfeasible to keep a cow on a dairy until it has lived its full, natural life.”
I realize all commercial dairy farms — Clover included — auction off their cows when they’re done producing milk, but it’s cold to see it in print, isn’t it?
Bottom line: Straus is not humanely certified — it’s not that nice to cows. Buy Clover if you have the option.
Rosie
July 14th, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Hi, I am vegan, but am looking into animal wefare approved or humane certified farms in Washington state for family members. I live in Seattle, so there aren’t a lot of farms. Is Whole Foods pretty receptive to obtaining these types of products if requested? Thanks for everything you do!
Emily
July 15th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Hi Rosie!
I’m so glad you’re vegan but looking into animal welfare approved or humane certified farms in Washington state! You’re awesome! I’m so glad anything i wrote can help you out in any way.
Gosh, well, I’m not sure if Whole Foods is pretty receptive to obtaining these types of products — but I would be absolutely thrilled if you would go to your local Whole Foods and request them! I think if enough people do it Whole Foods will definitely come around. They seem pretty responsive. I’m basing this on my one experience in asking Whole Foods to carry Coconut Bliss fake ice cream — I asked for it one time, and the ice cream rep came out and was very nice, and talked to me about how he’d look into Coconut Bliss, and six months later it appeared on the shelves! I was quite excited at the time. I don’t know if my asking had anything to do with their eventually stocking Coconut Bliss, but I’m sure it didn’t hurt.
(If you do ask, and they’re responsive, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE email me about it — I would love to be able to tell people who live in Seattle that there are any AWA or HCF products at their Whole Foods.)
I’m so glad you appreciate my posts!
Regards,
Emily
19 Responses