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GOURMET NEWS JULY 2018 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 8 Consumer Concerns Drive Adoption of Animal Welfare Certifications As consumers demand more and more transparency about the origins of the foods they eat, animal welfare consis- tently 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 pastured eggs from local farmers at her farmers market. "Since I've shopped from those farmers for- ever, I don't need them to pay for certifica- tion in order to trust how they are raising their animals," she says. But when she shops at Whole Foods, she says, she appreciates the store's five-step la- beling system for animal welfare so she can choose wisely. Whole Foods adopted its five-step pro- gram with guidance from the Global Ani- mal 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. Everything in Whole Foods' meat counter is labeled ac- cording 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 (pas- ture-centered) and on to step five (animal centered, 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 cat- egories," she says. "For some, animal welfare is not a concern; for others, 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 cer- tifications. "We are certainly growing every year since we started," she says. "More and more ranchers and farmers are seeking cer- tification, and more food service businesses and restaurants are letting their customers know about the certification of the prod- ucts 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 Cam- paigns for the American Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). "Before that, we were doing surveys and realizing that people were super confused. They were saying, 'I eat animal 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 wel- fare, 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/shop- withyourheart/consumer-resources to find dozens of animal-welfare certified brands of animal products available in local supermar- kets 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 at- tention 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, Califor- nia, 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 certification," he says. "It's not that easy to achieve. It's important to know the story of the maker, and that includes know- ing 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 animal that was happiest on its last day. That's how I make my decisions." The general public must agree, says the ASPCA's Freund, "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 commit- ments 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 prob- lems even before they're slaughtered. Working with the University of Guelph, in Ontario, Canada, GAP is working to in- troduce slower-growing birds that won't suffer such health problems but can still provide profits for growers. "We're al- ready getting commitments 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 certifica- tions. "I look for Certified Humane certifica- tion," says Barnard, who lives in San Mar- cos. "But I think the best one is the Certified Animal Welfare Approved label." GN Food Waste Continued from PAGE 6 Grabe also stressed the importance of personal research, and the importance of encouraging customers to do their own re- search, to reinforce mindfulness about waste. About a year-and-a-half ago, Grabe studied up on human impacts on Earth, which made an impact on him. "I made a conscious decision to really change my- self," he said. "I know I'm only one human being on this planet full of billions of us, but I really believe that change can start with one person. I teach this every single time I do a class, every time I talk to people about trying to minimize waste, and trying to use and recycle things they have in their home, and not be so wasteful just throwing stuff away." Grabe said some people come to his classes purely because they know he's this kind of chef, who likes to recycle and use wild and organic products. Not everyone is receptive to the teach- ings, he said, because they actually have to have an interest in the first place to change themselves, but there's a growing interest among his audience. "I've taken an extra role in doing this kind of stuff. Some peo- ple take it for granted because they don't think about it, aren't educated on it, and others don't care," he said, adding that this is where kitchenware retailers can make their own mark. "I think it depends on the person, but it is about education. We need to educate the general public about how our actions affect the planet." According to Grabe, the reason food waste has become such a problem is because over the past half-century, consumers have gotten used to 24/7, nonstop abundance. "We've grown up in a culture the past 50 or 60 years that is a throwaway culture," he said. "To this day, you can see it: everything you buy is wrapped in plastic. It's kind of at the stage where, 'I can afford an orange, and I can buy two ― and if I don't need one, I'll throw one away.' People become desperate when they have nothing, so if you have no food or you're homeless, every scrap of food you have means something to you ― but if you have an excess of something, you don't care about it. Have you ever watched birds and monkeys eat in the wild? When there's an abundance of food in the spring, they'll sit and gorge themselves in the tree- tops, and as they're eating, they throw scraps down, the food is coming out the sides of their mouths ― but come the end of the year toward winter, they start fight- ing over every single scrap, and it's the same with human nature. We have to edu- cate people that we're excessively using something all the time, and we don't even care about it. When you go to the super- market, it's jam-packed with food all the time. You don't think about it, this nev- erending source of supply. Mother Nature is not like that, and this is what's created this kind of wasteful thinking." Compost might not be the first thing one would associate with a kitchenware store, but Boydstun says her store does okay with RSVP International Compost Pails, countertop compost bins that don't stink up the house, which are available in stainless steel and bamboo. Even better, RSVP offers Biobags, plant-based plastic liners that hold the compost and biode- grade over time. "They're pretty, so you don't mind having them on the counter. My chef uses one," she said. "It's about the size of a flour canister. They make them smaller, too, but you kind of need a larger one to fit everything in it; your coffee grounds, your eggshells." She added that it's not her biggest mover, as most of her customers are snowbirds who eat out often, but that enough people are inter- ested that she likes to carry it, and that it might perform better in other stores. Boydstun said she believes kitchenware retailers who offer classes, including Kitchen Kitchen, could go further in edu- cating their customers. "What would be good is teaching other people how to com- post," she said. "We haven't done that, we've only taught a class on what to do with leftovers and how to minimize waste. It'd also be good to teach on measurements, how much to use, because you don't want to make too much unless you're really good about putting leftovers in the freezer." Berkenkamp offered a similar senti- ment. "More and more municipalities are starting to offer curbside collection of or- ganic materials, like food scrap or yard waste. That is not available universally, so many community residents can't easily compost food scrap," she said. "It's terrific for consumers to have their own compost, and take those scraps to generate new soil. They can also advocate to their city government to make composting services available whether it's through city-wide services or neighborhood-level compost- ing sites where residents can take their scraps." She recommended starting at city council, or contacting the company or or- ganization that provides hauling services in a given area, should a retailer want to advocate for community-level compost collection. She says there's a lot of opportunity for small businesses to make a difference, by arming their customers with the tools, ideas and confidence to do so. "More and more consumers are starting to look at the food they waste, and want to find ways to reduce it. Retailers can play a key role in connecting consumers with both the sup- plies they need to do that at home and the ideas that can help them store food better, make use of what they have and plan better meals for their family," she said. "I expect that there is a growing market for products and services that assist in consumers trim- ming food waste at home. Smart retailers will find a way to meet that demand." GN