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!
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List of Certified Humane Raised & Handled Producers: |
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Abbotsford Egg Products |
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Against The Wind Ranch |
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Alison’s Family Farms Turkey |
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Anderson Ranch Lamb |
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Applegate Farms Bacon |
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Ayrshire Farm |
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Blackwing Meats Chicken |
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Black Mesa Ranch |
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Blue Hen family Farm Eggs |
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Braswell Foods Organic Cage-Free Eggs |
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Caw Caw Creek Farm |
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Ceago Vinegarden Eggs |
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Cricket Creek Farm Cheese & Milk |
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D’Agostino’s Pork, Chicken & Veal |
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Digging Dog Farm Wool |
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duBreton’s Natural Pork |
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Echo Farm Puddings |
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Egg Innovations |
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Farmers Hen House Eggs |
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Farmers Organic International Eggs |
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Fiedler Family Farms |
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Footsteps Farm |
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Giving Nature Eggs |
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Glaum Egg Ranch |
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Green Pasture’s Farm Dairy |
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Hearst Ranch Beef |
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Heinen’s Fine Foods |
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Hendricks Farms and Dairy |
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Heron’s Court Farm |
(540) 687-5424 |
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Hidden Villa Ranch |
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Home Farm Beef, Pork, |
(540) 687-8882 |
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Huntsinger Organic Chicken |
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Knee Deep Ranch Beef |
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Maverick Ranch Pork & Organic Chicken |
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MBA Poultry |
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Meyer Natural Angus Beef |
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Mosner Veal |
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Murray’s Chicken |
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Natural Organic Food Group PEI Pork |
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Nature’s Premier Organic Chicken |
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Nellie’s Nest Eggs |
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Nest Fresh Eggs |
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Newman Farm Heritage Berkshire Pork |
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North Country Smokehouse Bacon |
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PCC Natural Markets Pork |
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Pederson’s Natural Farms |
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Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs |
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Phil’s Fresh Eggs |
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Polyface Farm |
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Pop’s Farm Chicken (Canada) |
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Prairie View Dairy |
Chenoa, Illinios |
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Prather Ranch Beef |
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Purely Natural/Pure Farms Bacon |
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Radlo Foods Cage Free Eggs |
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Range Brothers Ranch Pork |
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Redwood Hill Farm |
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Shelburne Farms |
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Soncrest Egg Company |
(830) 672-4433 |
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Stiebrs Farm cage free and organic |
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Touchstone Farm |
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Wilcox Family Farms |
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Wild Oats’ branded organic cage-free eggs |
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White Oak Pastures Beef |
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Barton Seaver - Cafe St. Ex & Bar Pilar |
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Todd Gray - Equinox Restaurant |
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Brooke Vosika - Fifty Seven Fifty Seven |
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Zak Pelaccio - 5 Ninth |
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Hunter’s Head Tavern |
540-592-9020 |
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Chirs Cosentino - Incanto |
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Steve Connaughton - Lupa Restaurant New York, NY |
212-982-5089 |
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Robert Weidmaier - Marcel’s |
www.marcelsdc.com |
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Cathal Armstrong - Restauant Eve |
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Brian McBride - Melrose |
202-419-6750 |
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Cathal Armstrong - Restaurant Eve |
703-706-0450 |
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Patricia Yeo - Sapa |
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Josh DeChellis - Sumile |
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Cesare Lanfranconi - Tosca |
www.toscadc.com |
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Colin Alveras - The Tasting Room |
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Chef Angelo Sosa New York, NY |
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(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.
Comment by Pearl — October 25, 2007 @ 1:09 pm
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.
Comment by Emily — October 27, 2007 @ 2:24 am
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
Comment by damaris webb — March 21, 2008 @ 3:00 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
Comment by Emily — March 21, 2008 @ 9:26 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
Comment by Sean — June 30, 2008 @ 8:42 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
Comment by Emily — June 30, 2008 @ 11:23 pm
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.
Comment by Tyler — July 18, 2008 @ 11:15 am