Oser Communications Group

2 2 SNACKING NEWS August 2018 BY ROBIN MATHER As consumers demand more and more transparency about the origins of the foods they eat, animal welfare consistently tops the list of the considerations they bring to the market. It's hard to know which certifications mean something, and which don't, however. Californian Diane Barnard's chickens provide her with eggs, she says, and when they're not laying, she buys pas- tured eggs from local farmers at her farmers market. "Since I've shopped from those farmers forever, I don't need them to pay for certification in order to trust how they are raising their animals," she says. But when she shops at Whole Foods, she says, she ap- preciates the store's five-step labeling system for animal welfare so she can choose wisely. Whole Foods adopted its five-step program with guid- ance from the Global Animal Partnership (GAP) of Austin, Texas, back in 2008. Ten years ago, the company agreed to be fully transparent about how the animals that yield the meat that Whole Foods sells are treated. Every- thing in Whole Foods' meat counter is labeled according to how the animals are raised back at the farm. Step One, the lowest level, means no cages, no crates, and no crowd- ing. The program continues through step two (enriched environment); step three (enhanced outdoor access); step four (pasture-centered) and on to step five (animal cen- tered, no physical alterations). At the very top is step five- plus: animal centered, entire life on the same farm. Barnard's careful shopping puts her at the top of a triad of shoppers, says Libba Letton, spokesperson for Global Animal Partnership. "Consumers can be divided into three categories," she says. "For some, animal welfare is not a concern; for oth- ers, it's a concern but they don't care about the details. And some want to know the details, and how things are being done on the farm." Letton says consumer interest in welfare ratings is evident in the growth of GAP certifications. "We are certainly grow- Consumer Concerns Drive Adoption of Animal Welfare Certifications ing every year since we started," she says. "More and more ranchers and farmers are seeking certification, and more food service businesses and restaurants are letting their cus- tomers know about the certification of the products they sell. Cutting Through the Confusion "We started tracking certifications with our 'Shop with Your Heart' program almost two years ago," says Daisy Freund, Director of Farm Animal Welfare Strategy and Campaigns for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). "Before that, we were doing surveys and realizing that people were super confused. They were saying, 'I eat an- imal products, but I want to do the right thing,' and that's why we created Shop with Your Heart." ASPCA highlights three certifications, Freund says — Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved and GAP step 2 and above. The three vary in their levels of welfare, but all have on-farm welfare standards developed by scientists and veterinarians, and all require independent on-farm audits. Consumers can visit www.aspca.org/shopwithyour heart/consumer-resources to find dozens of animal-wel- fare certified brands of animal products available in local supermarkets as well as online. There's a section on the website where grocers and restaurateurs can learn how to connect with certified providers, too. Consumers Driving the Demand "In 2016, we surveyed a thousand people and found that 74 percent were paying more attention to labels than they had been five years previously," Freund said. "We saw, across the board, really high levels of concern, and that was driving interest in that labeling." Chef Ryan Farr of San Francisco, California, started 4505 Chicharrones because of his interest in nose-to-tail eating. Being able to label his company's products as hu- manely raised was one of his founding principles, he says. "Animal Welfare Approved is a really great certifica- tion," he says. "It's not that easy to achieve. It's important to know the story of the maker, and that includes knowing what the farmers' practices are. What are the animals fed? How far do they have to travel to slaughter?" Customers have to ask "what's important to me?," he says. "In my opinion, you get the best product from an an- imal that was happiest on its last day. That's how I make my decisions." The general public must agree, says the ASPCA's Fre- und, "because we're seeing a pretty big uptick in numbers of animals certified under one of these programs." In 2015, Certified Humane, Global Animal Partnership and Animal Welfare Approved collectively certified the welfare of around 393 million animals, she says. In 2016 that number rose to about 440 million. "That's about five percent of the market," she says. "We have seen a ton of major commitments among poultry producers to become GAP certified, and we're going to see a big surge in commitments in the next five or six years, especially in the broiler-fryer space." GAP's Letton says those commitments are coming through its Better Chicken Initiative, which promises to reverse the overbreeding of the classic Cornish-Rock cross birds that have been selectively bred to grow so fast and so big that the animals suffer health problems even before they're slaughtered. Working with the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, GAP is working to introduce slower-growing birds that won't suffer such health problems but can still provide profits for growers. "We're already getting com- mitments to make the improvements by 2024," she says. Among those who have already signed: Perdue, Sodexo, Starbucks, Nestle, Campbell's and Subway. For now, though, California shopper Barnard says she looks to familiar certifications. "I look for Certified Humane certification," says Barnard, who lives in San Marcos. "But I think the best one is the Certified Animal Welfare Approved label." n

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