Living Cruelty Free

ITPASSEDITPASSEDITPASSED!

I’m very excited

Thanks to everyone who voted in favor of Prop 2 — I can sleep easier at night knowing so many animals will live less confined lives starting three years from now.  Yay!

Election day is coming up — I thought I’d mention again that the stop-torturing-farm-animals-who-give-their-lives-for-us proposition is on the ballot.  I’m really hoping it passes — so if you’re a Californian and you want to eradicate the some of the worst atrocities of factory farming that I can’t believe any reasonable person would ever support, be they carnivorous people or not, vote yes on proposition 2!

(Isn’t that a great picture?  I think french bulldogs are adorable.  Click on the picture to see a little factsheet you can print out with a few benefits of prop 2 listed.)

Here are some key facts about Prop 2 from HumaneCalifornia.org:

This November 4, Californians should vote YES! on Prop 2 – a modest measure that stops cruel and inhumane treatment of animals, ending the practice of cramming farm animals into cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, lie down or extend their limbs.

Voting YES! on Prop 2…

• Prevents cruelty to animals.

  It’s simply wrong to confine veal calves, breeding pigs, and egg-laying hens in tiny cages barely larger than their bodies. Calves are tethered by the neck and can barely move, pigs in severe confinement bite the metal bars of their crates, and hens get trapped and even impaled in their wire cages. We wouldn’t force our pets to live in filthy, cramped cages for their whole lives, and we shouldn’t force farm animals to endure such misery. All animals, including those raised for food, deserve humane treatment.

  
  

• Improves our health and food safety.

  We all witnessed the cruel treatment of sick and crippled cows exposed by a Southern California slaughter plant investigation this year, prompting authorities to pull meat off school menus and initiate a nationwide recall. Factory farms put our health at risk—cramming tens of thousands of animals into tiny cages, fostering the spread of diseases that may affect people. YES! on Prop 2 is better for animals—and for us.

  
  

• Supports family farmers.

  California family farmers support YES! on Prop 2 because they know that better farming practices enhance food quality and safety. Increasingly, they’re supplying major retailers like Safeway and Burger King. Factory farms cut corners and drive family farmers out of business when they put profits ahead of animal welfare and our health.

  
  

• Protects air and water and safeguards the environment.

  The American Public Health Association has called for a moratorium on new factory farms because of the devastating effects these operations can have on surrounding communities, spreading untreated waste on the ground and contaminating our waterways, lakes, groundwater, soil, and air. Prop 2 helps stop some of the worst abuses and protects our precious natural resources. That’s why California Clean Water Action and Sierra Club-California support YES! on Prop 2.

  
  

• Is a reasonable and common-sense reform.

  Prop 2 provides ample time—until 2015—for factory farms using these severe confinement methods to shift to more humane practices. Arizona, Colorado, Florida, and Oregon have passed similar laws. The Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, hundreds of California veterinarians, including the California Veterinary Medical Association; California family farmers; the Center for Food Safety, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the United Farm Workers, and the Cesar Chavez Foundation; Republican and Democratic elected officials; California religious leaders; and many others.

Hal Sparks is on the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act bandwagon!  Yay!    Let’s all vote to end keeping livestock (who give their milk, eggs, and lives for us) in horrific conditions!  Florida and Arizona have already passed this sort of regulation!

Here’s the video of Hal Sparks speaking in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on Youtube — check it out!  (I have to admit I haven’t watched this video because I’m Afraid of the Animal Cruelty I Might See, and as you undoubtedly know, I’m 100% in favor of the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act so I don’t need any convincing from the video — I hope it’s not too graphic, but I’m sorry I can’t vet it for you.)

The original article I found this information in is from a post by Erinnuallain over at Ecorazzi.com, (my source for celebrity anti-animal-testing news!):

Hal Sparks wants your votes to save animals, California!

Hal Sparks (VH1, Queer as Folk, Zero1) may make a living cracking jokes, but the treatment of animals is something that he takes very seriously. If you watched him in Celebracadabra as I did, you probably picked up on that when he refused to do an escape that might harm snakes and also lamented over an earlier trick involving butterflies. In a video message for Californians for Humane Farms, Hal shows his support for the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act by saying that “Treating an animal like a widget is cruel” and “Animals deserve to be treated humanely, even if they are raised for food.”

Hal is just one of the many celebrities who will be voting YES on Prop 2 in November. Others include: Ed Begley, Jr. (will Bill Nye be getting in on this too?), Hayden Panettiere, Alicia Silverstone, Rikki Rachtman, and many more.  (Source)

Suppose you’re a moral person who doesn’t like torturing animals but is not averse to killing them for food purposes, yet you want to buy fast food. (Quick disclaimer: I am not an omnivore, but I LIKE omnivorous people who want to switch to not eating factory farmed food. If you’re a humane omnivore, I think you’re a lovely, caring person who is taking a stand against the animal abuse that goes on at battery farms. Though I do think veganism+100%-animal-testing-freeism is the absolute least cruel way to live.)

So anyway, if you’re a humane omnivore, should you go to Jack in the Box, McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, etc? Absolutely not. Especially not Kentucky Fried Chicken (warning: highly disturbing website. Do NOT click there if you don’t like seeing those horrific videos).

So, where can you buy fast food? McDonalds is sort of a good choice because it limits its cage-bound egg-laying chickens to cages that must be at least the size of a laptop. Maybe a “good” choice is not the word I should be using. Not the most evil choice you could make? Anyway, I don’t buy anything egg or meat based from McDonalds because I don’t support animal abuse. Burger King or Carl’s Jr are better choices because they also have cage-free eggs. Not that any of the meats they sell are humanely-raised. Appallingly, abusively raised, more likely.

However — your best option by far is Chipotle. They have GREAT vegan options — you can customize any burrito, taco, or salad to be completely vegan — just get the (vegan) black beans instead of the (made with lard/bacon) pinto beans, peppers instead of meat, guacamole and lettuce instead of sour cream and cheese, and you still have a choice of three different kinds of salsa (the spicy one is really, really good. I am completely addicted to it). (I found this great blog that confirms that these Chipotle items are really vegan, — please click here.)

If you’re a vegetarian, while the cheese and sour cream do not come from certified nonfactory farms (Hello Chipotle? Why EVER not?), the cheese is 100% vegetarian — no newborn calves stomachs were chopped up to provide rennet to start this cheese, and the sour cream is from cows not treated with synthetic rGBH hormones. If you’re an ethical omnivore, the pork served at Chipotle is 100% humanely-raised, the chicken is 60%-humanely-raised, and the beef is 40% humanely raised. (I’m not really sure why the chicken and beef aren’t 100%-humanely raised. Hello, Chipotle? Please change this. Along with switching to buying only certified humane sour cream and cheese. Because right now I’m desperately trying to only eat vegan burritos — rice, black beans, peppers, corn, some of all three different salsas (yes!  you can get all three — just ask for them), guacamole and lettuce — and I really, really miss eating sour cream and cheese on those. But I am not going to until those are less inhumanely obtained.)

Chipotle Information on their humane farming practices:

Most pigs do not spend their lives on open pastures, but live in Concentrated Animal Feed Operations, or CAFOs. The conditions in a CAFO are bad, even horrendous. In many ways, they look more like factories than farms. Pigs are crowded so closely with other pigs that they must be given antibiotics from a young age to avoid the spread of infection. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, American pork producers use 10 million pounds of antibiotics per year to keep their confinement raised pigs from getting sick. That’s more than an estimated three times the amount used to treat all human illnesses.
Pigs raised in these “factory farm” conditions, about 95 percent of all of the pigs raised in this country, often don’t even have room to turn around in their crates, let alone experience the outdoors. It’s stressful and inhumane for them, and it’s surely not healthy for us either.
We think there’s a better way to do things.
It’s called old-fashioned animal husbandry, which means farmers rely on care, not chemicals, to tend their animals and their land. Pigs raised in this way are not given antibiotics, and their feed does not contain animal by-products. They are free to roam the pasture, to root in deeply bedded barns, and to socialize with other pigs.
We believe pigs that are cared for in this way enjoy happier, healthier lives and produce the best pork we’ve ever tasted. We call pork produced according to these standards naturally raised, and sourcing it for our restaurants is part of a larger mission we’ve dubbed Food With Integrity, an ongoing quest to source the highest quality food from farmers who care deeply about the welfare of their animals, their land, and their communities.
Since 2001, all of the pork served in our restaurants has been from pigs raised in this humane, ecologically sustainable way. In addition to all of our pork, nearly 60 percent of our chicken and more than 40 percent of our beef is naturally raised. And we’ll continue until all of our meats in all of our restaurants meet this standard.
Once again, naturally raised pork at Chipotle means:
· No antibiotics, ever.
· Letting pigs exhibit their natural behaviors in open pasture or
deeply-bedded pens.
· Vegetarian feed with no animal by-products.

Here are some of our suppliers for naturally raised pork: duBreton (certified raised humane and handled), Niman Ranch (animal welfare approved), Ozark Mountain, and Pioneer Pork (supposedly free farmed certified, though not listed on the American Humane website — I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming the American Humane association takes a while to update their website). (I’m also giving Ozark Mountain the benefit of the doubt — I didn’t find anything about Ozark Mountain on any humane farming labels — I assume (hope!) the Chipotle people went out and made sure Ozard Mountain does not do any factory farming.)

Shootin’ fools and starry gazers, wizard hip and button down,
I walk the occam’s razor way through priests and circus clowns,
am I a missioner of faith or grace or vision Earth or,
another grinning prisoner in Happytown?

— Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer

I’ve found a third no-kill farm on localharvest.org! Isn’t that excellent? I love no-kill farms. This one is another of those has-gone-beyond-the-whole-”humanely-raised”-qualification and has moved on to actually not-killing-animals-at-all. (Just to be absolutely clear about this — I’m still very much in favor of farms that certify that they humanely raise their animals — I think they are worlds better than those horrible abusive factory farms. I really do. And I especially love the AWA, AHA, Humane Raised and Handled certifications — they are SO USEFUL as go-to-lists to find humane farms — much more useful than farms just stating they are humane on their websites in fine print somewhere. However, I like no-kill farms even more — I think they surpass “humanely raised” farms and I wish there were more of them out there. But seriously, there are very few of them out there and I really don’t think they’re not a competitive threat to any humanely certified farms. So if you are a humanely certified farm, know that I still admire and respect you — I don’t hate you, I swear.)

(ETA: The other no-kill farms I’ve blogged about are Black Hen Farm (Santa Cruz, California), and Fias Co Farm (Tennessee). Another one I haven’t blogged about but have been meaning to is The Farm at Mollie’s Branch (Todd, NC))

Anyway, Happytown Dairy, which is named after a song written by Dave Carter, is a no-kill goat farm in Lawrence, Kansas that sells goat cheese, goat yogurt, goat milk, and goat milk soap. It is a small farm that raises registered LaMancha dairy goats which are hand-milked twice daily. The farm follows strict sanitation practices, and the goats are cared for like members of the family, and are grass-pastured.

How no-kill is Happytown Dairy? The proprietors assure me that they work hard to find good homes for all their baby goats. They neuter the boys and sell them as pets (goats are apparently gaining popularity in the area both for use as pets and for brush control). (I think that’s really useful — actually if you drive way out to Orinda in the far east part of the San Francisco Bay Area you can actually see herds of goats grazing the sides of the highway — it’s so hilly there it’s difficult to get any sort of machine to graze the sides of the road, so they utilize goats instead. It’s very picturesque — I highly recommend it if you’re an animal nut like me whose idea of a good time is to go watch a herd of goats. Sometimes they have baby goats! It’s fun.) The proprietors of Happytown Dairy make sure they do not sell their male baby goats to people who will butcher them, and they make sure of that by following up on every adoption with visits and phone calls. They also sell the female baby goats as pets or milk goats to good homes. They only use vegetable rennet in making cheeses, so all their cheese are really vegetarian.

Unfortunately they are mandated to only be able to sell their milks/cheeses/soaps from their farm by Kansas state law, so you can’t order any of their cheese online or in markets. Which really sucks, because I would LOVE to order cheese from there. Sigh.

You’ll have to go out to the farm to buy any products, but if you do go, they sell
goat cheese (year round)
goat yogurt (year round)
raw milk (year round)
goat milk soap (winter, summer and fall) (not spring) (call for availability)

Happytown Dairy
1659 E. 800 Rd.
Lawrence, KS 66049
Contact Information
Elise Fischer
785-843-0968

(Do you know of any no-kill farms that could use some word of mouth? Drop me a line.)

I’ve gotten a bunch of emails lately about this, so I thought I’d devote a whole post to it.

Basically, if you’re an omnivore and you’re trying to stop supporting the animal abuse that goes on at factory farms, it’s very simple. I swear. I myself am no longer an omnivore, but I was one not so long ago, and I like and admire people who are trying to switch from being inhumane omnivores to humane omnivores (I do! I think you’re fabulous.) I think there is a world of difference between promoting factory-farming animal abuse and promoting a pleasant environment for animals before they are slaughtered.

I think there is a spectrum of cruelty-free-ness – at one end there’s torturing and killing animals. At the other end, there’s not killing them at all. On a one-to-four scale it would go something like this:

• 1 – tortures and kills animals (factory farming, animal abusers, people who run inhumane tests on animals)

• 2 – not torturing animals, but killing them quickly (humanely raised meat/dairy + not supporting animal testing)

• 3 – not torturing animals, not killing them (humanely raised dairy/eggs + not supporting animal testing)

• 4 – not buying any animal products whatsoever (vegan + not supporting animal testing)

I myself was an omnivore, then I switched to eating humanely raised meat and dairy, then on to vegetarianism, and I’m slowly working my way towards veganism, which I think is the kindest way to live (but it’s really hard . . . ).

(Quick disclaimer — “humanely raised” means the animals live short but free-from-pain-inflicted-by-people lives — basically, while they are alive they are not physically abused, but they are usually killed long before the end of their natural lifespan — for a meat-providing animal, usually at about six months of age, and for an egg/dairy providing animal, when they stop producing eggs/milk. Chickens that are humanely raised are not kept in cages the size of laptops for their entire six month existence, and they don’t have their beaks cut off. Pigs and veal calves that are humanely raised are not kept in crates they literally cannot turn around in for their entire existence. So again, “humanely raised” does not mean “no kill,” and it has other drawbacks as well. Chickens that lay “humanely raised” eggs are slaughtered when they stop producing eggs, which is usually 3 years of age out of 9 year lifespan. “Humanely raised” dairy cows are slaughtered when they stop producing milk. Male chicks born to layer hens are slaughtered right after they are born; male calves born to dairy cows are slaughtered when they are six months old for veal. Dairy cows are kept continually pregnant to provide milk for people, and their calves are taken away from them at a very young age and fed on milk substitute. So, while humanely raised meat/dairy products are without a doubt far, far better than inhumanely raised, they are not as kind to animals as veganism.)

So,

The Three Steps to Becoming a Humane Omnivore:

Step 1 — Buy Humanely Raised Meat/Dairy Products at the Grocery Store:

The first thing you should know is that there are three very good lists of humane meat and dairy products:

1) The Animal Welfare Association’s Animal Welfare Approved List. This is the strictest and best list — it has very high standards (unfortunately it just started out, so there aren’t that many farms listed on it. But it’s growing every day). I wrote a blog post about it not too long ago.

2) The American Humane Association’s Free Farmed List. This is another good list — I wrote a blog post about it too.

3) The Humane Raised and Handled Certification list: I wrote a blog post about this one too.

The best thing about these three lists is that they have logos that are right on packages of meat and dairy products — the “Animal Welfare Approved,” the “American Humane Certified” logo and the “Certified Humane Raised & Handled” logo — so go to the meat section of your local grocery store and check to see if anything in the cases has those logos, and if they do, buy them.

What to do if you can’t find anything with either of those logos in your area:

If there’s nothing with one of those logos available in your area, the “free-range” label actually means something as well — it is definitely a step up from factory farming, so go ahead and buy anything that says it is “free-range.” I’d stay away from anything else — “natural,” “naturally nested,” “happy,” etc., mean absolutely nothing. (I suspect you’ll probably have better luck at natural/health food stores or upscale markets than Safeway/Luckys/etc.)

You can also use localharvest.org — it lists information about numerous farms. So if you find a meat product from a farm you don’t know anything about, you can look the farm up on Local Harvest and decide if it is humane enough for you.

The absolutely easiest way to find humanely farmed products:

The easiest way of all to buy humanely raised meat and dairy products is to shop at Whole Foods — every animal product at Whole Foods (in the prepared foods and the unprepared foods sections) had to pass Whole Foods humane standards (thanks to Pearl for telling me about this!), which are not as stringent as the other three standards, but are pretty good:

So you can just go to Whole Foods and pick any meat product out, you’ll be fine.

Step 2 — Go Out to Eat at Restaurants that Serve Humanely-Raised Meat/Dairy Products.

Eatwellguide.org is a lifesaver in this situation. Just put in your zipcode and it will tell you all the restaurants around you that have free-range, pasture-raised, sustainable, and biodynamic meat/dairy products, and it will even tell you which ones each restaurant carries (unfortunately not many restaurants seem to carry free-range eggs — in this area, I think Chez Panisse is the only one). Write these down, go to the restaurants, and be sure to order the humanely-raised meat/dairy products they offer. (Unfortunately Eatwellguide also won’t tell you whether any of the farms are AWA certified, AHA certified, or Humane Raised and Handled Certified. Hello, Eatwellguide? That would be nice. Along with making the search feature easier to use — I’d love to be able to do a search and find every free-range egg restaurant in the area.)

(Edited to add: As you can see from the comment down below from Erin of EatWellGuide (so cool!) — you CAN actually use EatWellGuide to find out which restaurants carry free-range eggs.  I was just confused because I was trying to find free-range eggs and dairy products at the same time, and the search engine showed me results with some restaurants that didn’t carry free-range eggs.  So anyway, go ahead and use EatWellGuide’s advanced search feature to find free-range products — it’s very useful — and, um, just search for one free-range item at a time!)

Google is also your friend — google your area, plus words like “free-range” and “restaurants.” You’ll be surprised by how many restaurants have that sort of thing.

(Optional) Step 3 — Allow Yourself to Eat Inhumane Products If You Really Crave Them

This is an optional step, but it helped me out a lot, so I thought I’d include it. Basically, you’re not going to stick to eating only humanely raised foods if you cut yourself off immediately from your favorite things. If you’re at a fabulous expensive restaurant you adore, let yourself eat whatever you feel like. Then, the next day, if you’re offered something you’re only kind of “meh” about, absolutely refuse to eat it unless it’s humanely raised. An animal suffered and died for that — if you don’t absolutely crave it, it’s just not worth eating it. The difference between faux-tofu-based-bologna and back-of-the-fridge- watery-and-rubbery -in-the-first-place-inhumane-bologna is not one of taste — trust me, they both taste fairly blah — it is that one caused a great deal of suffering, pain and torment, and the other did not.

It’s hard to believe, but after a few months you will be able to refuse fabulous expensive delicious product-of-torture-meat/dairy products. I promise. After you’ve spent a great deal of time eating only humanely-raised products, the thought of eating something that caused that much suffering will be psychologically difficult to take. At least eventually it became that way for me, anyway . . .

(If you have any (positive) advice that would help people trying to eat more humanely farmed foods, please add it here. If you want a personal description of what it’s like to start eating humanely farmed foods all of the time, check out Pearl’s comments on my humane farming posts.)

Good luck!

You know how I always write these humane farming posts and I encourage people to buy humanely farmed products despite the fact that the animals that produce them are usually slaughtered when they’re still pretty young, have their babies taken away from them when they’re only a few days old, and live less than pleasant lives all around? The reason I encourage people to buy these products even though they are the products of less than ideal conditions for animals, is that they aren’t supporting the torture and abuse that goes on at factory farms. (Seriously — even if you’re a carnivore — please don’t support factory farming. It’s akin to animal abuse.)

Well, I have FINALLY found one farm that not only doesn’t factory-farm abuse its animals, but it doesn’t do any of that other unpleasant stuff either. Yes! It has eggs produced by rescued hens. You can buy these eggs guilt-free! (Other than the fact that they’re full of cholesterol and a vegan diet would probably actually let you live a lot longer.) Can you imagine? These hens live out their full 9 years instead of the 2 or 3 even the most humane farms provide (some apparently live up to 25 years). You’re doing a good deed just by buying these eggs!

Where, you might ask, do these hens reside? Apparently, in Santa Cruz at Black Hen Farm. And where can you buy these guiltless eggs? At the Los Gatos Farmers market on Sunday from 9:30am-1pm in downtown Los Gatos, and at the Santa Cruz downtown farmers market on Wednesday in downtown Santa Cruz from 3pm-6:30pm.

I so have to go buy some of these eggs! Seriously. Unfortunately I live a heck of a long way away from Santa Cruz (well, 2 hours, really), so it’s a real hassle to me to go all the way there. But I definitely will at some point in the next few months, because I have to buy a lot of eggs to make food for my dog. Black Hen Farm has an interesting article on how to freeze eggs (along with other interesting bits of information about eggs), which I may try out:

Freezing Eggs

Poultry lay more eggs in the spring and summer than they do in fall
and winter. Some people choose to freeze eggs in ice cube trays for
use at those times. You can place the cubes in resealable plastic
freezer bags and store them for up to 1 year at 0 degrees F. As
needed, remove a few cubes, thaw in the refrigerator, and use
immediately.

To prepare whole eggs or yolks, put the egg yolks and whites, or just
the yolks, into a bowl and stir gently with a fork just to break up the
yolks but not incorporate air. To prevent them from getting lumpy, you
can add 1/2 tsp salt for savoury dishes OR 1Tb sugar or corn syrup
for sweet dishes per cup of eggs. Whites can be frozen without
stirring or adding salt or sugar.

1 whole egg = 3 Tb
1 yolk = 1 Tb
1 white = 2 Tb

I’ve never frozen eggs before — it honestly never occurred to me to even try, which is crazy because there’s nothing I hate more than buying eggs and then having them go bad in the fridge. Plus it’s not like my dog cares that any eggs might taste slightly weird because they’ve been frozen. She eats absolutely any food I give her as fast as possible without tasting it.

Anyway, I strongly urge anyone in the Santa Cruz area to support Black Hen Farm. It sounds like a great farm!

Here is some information taken directly from Black Hen Farm’s front page:

Black Hen Farms FAQ:

Where do your eggs come from?

It is estimated that over 90% of the eggs produced in the US come
from hens confined to tiny cages with no more space than a piece of
paper for each hen. In their natural environment, hens like to run,
take dust baths in the dirt, sunbathe, hunt for bugs and worms, and
interact with each other. They are very active and can’t wait to be let
out of their chicken house in the morning.

Our chickens have the good life:

		They are fed organic feed containing a variety of grains, legumes,
		and flax (for Omega 3), and fresh locally grown organic produce and weeds, as well as herbal supplements and lactobaccillus (yogurt cultures). They drink purified water from our 140-foot well. We are not close to any large commercial farms that might have pesticide or manure run-off. We think a varied diet for the birds is better than a feed that is just corn, soy, and a vitamin supplement, which is commonly used by large operations.
		They have lots of outdoor space to roam in and bugs to eat. Many
		egg-laying hens are never able to experience their natural behavior of scratching in the dirt and laying in the sun. We provide at least 10 square feet per standard size bird, or at least 4.5 square feet per small bird, and most have much more space. With this much space, we have no problems with cannibalism and do not trim beaks or remove rooster spurs.
		They are protected from predators, but no predators are killed.
		Some free-range operations have high predator losses or kill wildlife instead of keeping them out of the chicken run. We don’t clear large tracts of land for rotational grazing systems or introduce non-native forage but preserve our forested land for wildlife and native plant habitat. We often see coyotes, bobcats, foxes, raccoons, skunks, hawks, and owls, and even heard some mountain lions, but they can’t hurt the poultry.
		They receive care when they are sick or hurt, from our
		experienced chicken keepers, our farm poultry vet, or avian vets that we use in emergencies. Some operations simply kill a sick or hurt chicken - or do nothing.
		They receive antibiotics only if they are sick. Some operations give
		antibiotics as a normal part of their feed, or kill or sell an animal that becomes ill, as organic standards do not allow antibiotic use. Our birds stay healthy naturally with good living conditions, feed, and holistic supplements, and rarely need any medication.
		They are allowed to live out their full lives. Most operations kill
		hens after 1.5 to 2 years when they begin to lay fewer eggs. A chicken’s lifespan can be 25 years or even more.
		Most of the chickens on the farm were rescued, such as from a
		commercial egg farm, our local community, or animal control.
		Our farm has roosters. Most egg-laying facilities have no place for
		roosters. Almost all roosters that end up at animal control are euthanized.
		We let the hens take a break from egg laying. Some operations
		force hens to lay through the winter by providing extra light to trigger egg production. Research has shown that extra light causes reproductive cancer in hens.
		Although Asian bird flu has not arrived to our area, we are
		prepared. Our birds live in insulated housing and spacious runs that meet UC Davis and DEFRA guidelines for preventing contagious disease, such as bird flu, salmonella, and others. We periodically test the birds for contagious disease and parasites to make sure they are free of them. We quarantine all new birds.
		Compost for fertilizing farm plants and trees is produced on the
		farm. We don’t bring in manure from external sources, which in some cases has been implicated in the spread of bird flu. We don’t use fertilizer from factory farms. Instead, we periodically remove the mulch from the bird runs and bedding from the housing and use this as the basis for our compost process. The bedding in our bird housing is changed frequently so there is no offensive odor or conditions that promote disease. Some operations clean the housing only once or twice a year, or when they replace their flocks, and subject birds to dangerous molds, dust, and concentrated pathogens and ammonia.
		Our ducks have water to swim in. We have a large stock tank for
		the ducks and use the water for irrigating fruit trees, so no water is wasted. Some operations don’t supply water for waterfowl or dump it into waterways.

(The other no-kill farms I’ve blogged about are Happytown Dairy (Lawrence, Kansas), and Fias Co Farm (Tennessee).  Another one I haven’t blogged about but have been meaning to is The Farm at Mollie’s Branch (Todd, NC))

You know how I wrote a while ago about the petition to put a cruelty-free farming initiative on the California ballot? (For those of you who live in states that don’t have initiatives, initiatives provide a way for state residents to force a public vote on a proposed statute or law (Wikipedia). In states that allow initiatives, anyone can make the entire state vote on an issue by bringing in a petition that has been signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters (650,000 signatures? something like that). It bypasses political parties — there have been conservative and liberal issues brought to public vote by initiatives.)

Well, I’ve been going to Whole Foods since I first wrote about the petition pretty regularly, but in the past three months I haven’t seen a single clipboard-carrying petition person there. I was not accosted even once by someone with a clipboard asking me to sign a petition while I’m trying to decide whether I want to buy organic or conventional cherries (answer: it’s always good to make sure you know that you’re buying the ten-dollar six-ounce container of organic cherries instead of figuring that out after you’ve paid for them and are confused as to why your bill is so high).

That was up until a few weeks ago. I was in line, waiting to buy groceries, and I noticed this little sign by the checkout counter asking me if I’d like to sign the farm animal cruelty-prevention petition. Of course I was dying to sign the farm animal cruelty prevention petition, so I went over to the customer service booth and the Whole Foods employee there found a petition for me to sign, and I’m very happy to say I’ve actually signed it! I’m doing my part for sows who are stuck in gestational crates!

I’m still amazed that I had to seek out a petition. It seems like I spend most of my time at the produce department at Whole Foods trying to keep under the petition peoples’ radar, and if I’m unfortunate enough to see one headed towards me I drop whatever I’m holding and walk away as fast as possible. But the one time they have a petition I expressly want to sign, they’re nowhere to be seen.

If you’re at all interested in signing the cruelty-prevention petition, I encourage you to go to Whole Foods or wherever your local petition people hang out and ask to sign that petition. Unfortunately, the Humane California website doesn’t list the locations where you can go to sign petitions (or I just can’t find it — is it somewhere there on the site? I can only find a part about how to sign up to be a petition collector. I really don’t want to do that. Admirable as I think that might be.) But Whole Foods is probably your best bet, or if you don’t live near a Whole Foods, wherever you normally try to avoid people asking you to sign petitions is probably a good idea. The signatures all need to be in by February 22nd, and it looks like they haven’t received 650,000 yet, so please consider signing the petition . . .

An alert commenter (Hi Dinesh!) left a comment with a list of cheeses that use microbial or vegetable rennet (instead of using rennet from chopped up calves’ stomachs, apparently). I thought I’d post them here so everyone can see them. Unfortunately these cheese are not guaranteed to come from dairy farms that don’t sell their nonproductive cows to slaughter, or separate calves from mothers, etc., (Dinesh is still working on that — and I am REALLY LOOKING FORWARD to it!). Unfortunately none of them are French or Swiss either, which would be nice because cows there are more likely to be pasture-raised. However, these cheeses all use microbial or vegetable rennet (and I am excited to read that apparently microbial/vegetable rennet will become more popular among dairies in the future since biotechnology is making it cheaper every year!):

Dinesh commented:

I have been a vegetarian all my life, and spent countless hours researching this type of thing. Insofar as cheeses, here is a list I have compiled of cheeses that use microbial or vegetable rennet. It has been a while since I have called to confirm whether these things are still the case, but if they haven’t changed their practices, it should remain true. I suspect more cheeses will be using non-animal rennet in the future because biotechnology of this sort is getting cheaper every year, and it is now probably cheaper to use microbial rennet than the fourth bovine rumen. Anyway…the list (and BTW, I love Land ‘O Lakes bulk mozzarella-check your supermarket deli):

Sargento
All Sargento Snacks natural cheese sticks and cubes
Don’t buy Asiago, Provolone, Jarlsberg, Romano.

Land O’Lakes
Can buy Cheddar, Mozzarella, Colby, and Monterey Jack
Cheddar-any cheddar - mild medium sharp and extra sharp yellow and white
mozzarella
colby and colby jack
munster
swiss
monterrey jack
pepper jack

Avoid provolone, processed cheese (like individually wrapped american cheese)
Per website and phone conversation on 12/29/2005

Cabot
All cheeses.

Organic Valley
We do use a lipase enzyme derived from calf stomach in creating the flavor profile for our Blue Cheese Crumbles, making this and the Romano in our Italian 4-Cheese Blend our two non-vegetarian cheeses.

Kraft
IF ENZYME IS LISTED IN THE INGREDIENT LINE: we will list microbial enzyme if microbial and/or lipase if derived from calf and/or kid and/or lamb. The product contains Chymosin which is a microbiologically produced coagulating enzyme. This enzyme (Chymosin) is not derived from any animal source.

Can buy Kraft Singles process cheese food (website)
Philadelphia Cream Cheese (third party website)
Neufchatel Cheese (third party website)
Natural Swiss (phone conversation with Kraft on 03/31/05 and email 03/31/05)
Grated Parmesan may have animal source-check label-lipase has animal source (phone conversation with Kraft on 03/31/05 and email 03/31/05)
Microbial enzymes are listed as such. (phone conversation with Kraft on 03/31/05)

Check the following:

Brunkow Cheese Cooperative www.thecheeseman.com 888-376-3430
All cheeses, I think, but should check again.

Stella 800-558-7315
Mozzarella
Provolone
Parmesan
Ricotta
String cheese

Frigo
Mozzarella

Giant
Cheese made by Pauly
County Line: Old World Swiss, Colby, Monterrey Jack
Cream Cheese
Natural Swiss Slices
Natural Muenster slices
Biery cheese
Chunk Cheese: New York Sharp, Wisconsin Cheddar, Longhorn, Swiss, Danish Havarti, Monterrey Jack, Pepper Jack

Sargento
Pepper
Muenster
Cheddar

Mid American Farms
Parmesan
Mozzarella
Cheddar

Boar’s Head: Phone conversation at 1635 on 21 May 2007
Don’t buy these: Pecorino Romano, Parmesan, Feta, Picante slicing Provolone, Aged Provolone (Precut), Asiago, Para-frier, Provolone, Smoked Gruyere, Parmesano Regiano, Grana Padano, Peckerino, Gouda, Edam, Fontina.

Can buy these: Colby Jack, Colby Longhorne, White and Yellow American, Canadian Cheddar, Baby Swiss, Bleu Cheese, Butter Kase, Cream Cheese, Double Gloucester, Gold Label Swiss, Gorgonzola, regular Greuyere, Havarti, Dill, Jalapeno, horseradish cheddar, muzzarela, muenster

I received a tip (you know who you are — thanks!) that there is another humane certification around, and it is the “Animal Welfare Approved” seal, and it looks wonderful. If you are a small family farm with high animal care standards, you should definitely check it out and consider signing up for it — the more farms that join it, the easier it will be for cruelty-aware consumers to buy your products. (So far the AWA seal only seems to have a few farms listed, and no eggs/dairy, which I would find really useful.) (Just to be clear about this — I think veganism is the kindest way to live, but if you’re going to eat animal products, I hope you’ll consider supporting farms that let animals live well-cared for, comfortable lives — it’s far kinder than supporting farms that abuse animals the way factory farms do.)

Animal Welfare Approved Farms:

Beef:

Cates Family Farm

Drakes Bay Family Farms

Pigs:

Cane Creek Farm

MAE Farm

Parker Farms

Willow Creek Farms

Poultry:

Good Shepherd Turkey Ranch (Turkeys)

Whitmore Farms (Turkeys and Dual Purpose Chickens)

Meat Companies:

Pork:

Niman Ranch

Williams Pork

Turkeys:

Heritage Foods USA

Restaurants: (When dining at these locations, you are welcome to ask which of the selections are Animal Welfare Approved. Encourage them to carry only Animal Welfare Approved products.)

Blue Hill Restaurant (NY, NY)

Blue Hill at Stone Barns (Pocantico Hills, NY)

According to its website, the Animal Welfare Approved seal is run by the Animal Welfare Institute. The AWI’s standards “prohibit cruel conditions and practices that other labels allow,” and are “reviewed by veterinarians, farmers, and scientific experts in animal behavior and rooted in the Animal Welfare Institute’s 55-year track record of reducing the pain inflicted on animals.” The AWA seal is only open to family farms, since the AWI maintains that “families who own, labor on, and earn a meaningful livelihood from their farms have a true commitment and connection to their animals,” and the Animal Welfare Approved organization is nonprofit, has no fees or royalties for participating, and provides advisors and auditors to farms free of charge.

A number of people, including Bill Niman, of Niman Ranch, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Willie Nelson, endorse the Animal Welfare Approved seal.

“We demand the ultimate sacrifice of animals raised for food. Humans owe them a humane and dignified existence in return. The Animal Welfare Institute is setting the gold standard for how farm animals should be taken care of. I’ve worked closely with them for years and have seen their independence and deep commitment to humane animal farming. How these animals live affects us all because good animal husbandry provides wholesome food and protects our air, water, and landscapes.”

- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

The Animal Welfare Approved seal has a number of stringent requirements that many other humane farming seals do not require. It prohibits different standards of care being applied to different groups of animals on one farm, docking pigs’ tails, debeaking egg-laying hens, confining sows in crates, and making animals live above pools of their own waste. It requires that farms it certifies have only breeds of animals that are selected for good resilience and genetic soundness, that sows be provided with nesting materials, and that animals have actual outdoor access and natural daylight. (It also has a nice pictorial comparison of caged, cage-free, and free-range hens, and a nice pictorial comparison of crated, crate-free, and free-range gestating sows.)

That all sounds great, right? Willie Nelson is a well-known animal rights supporter who has spoken against against dog-fighting and worked to close horse slaughterhouses in Texas, and don’t those stringent animal welfare requirements look fantastic? But the part of the AWA program that touched me was that the AWA regulations on caring for chickens recommend Great Pyrenees dogs as protectors of chickens from wild animals. I LOVE Great Pyrenees — they are one of the most gentle-tempered breeds I’ve ever met (yet very fierce to predators — they were bred to be gentle to sheep yet fight off wolves) — and I completely support any organization that recommends Great Pyrenees as guard dogs. (For those of you who like both cats and dogs, Great Pyrenees are also one of the few breeds that are known for not just tolerating, but liking cats. Since I like both cats and dogs, that is really appealing to me. I would buy/rescue a Great Pyrenees if I could afford to keep a huge (100 lb on average) dog, and had a huge property to let it run around on.) Also I think Great Pyrenees as guard dogs are much kinder to wild animals than traps, electric fences, etc.

Here are all the Animal Welfare Approved standards (don’t read them if you don’t like to read about animals being slaughtered) (if you are knowledgeable about farm animal conditions and care about animal welfare, could you read these and tell me what you think of them? Do you think they’re stringent enough? Pearl — I seem to remember your mentioning the AWA seal before in your comments — what are your thoughts on it?)

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Beef Cattle and Calves^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Chickens^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Dairy Cattle and Calves^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Ducks^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Geese^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Pigs^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Rabbits^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Sheep^©

 

Animal Welfare Approved Standards for Turkeys^©