Park Slope Food Coop Animal Welfare Committee

We're Official!

2011-03-30T16:48:00.005-04:00

We are now officially a committee!

Thanks to all of the attendees at last night's General Meeting who brought up great discussion points and voted us in as a committee. We're excited to get the chance to serve the PSFC membership in this area. We look forward to putting together a diverse committee to help with this work.

Now, how do you join? Good question!

In the near future, we'll be posting a call for applicants for the committee both here and in the Linewaiter's Gazette. In the meantime, we'll be having some discussions with both staff and other committees about the best way to get the information we'll have back out to PSFC members. Some good points were raised during the GM with regards to how the information will be available to the PSFC membership. Product lists? Shelf labeling? General information on what certain terms mean? Online component? Product reference binders? We want to make sure we're pulling in committee members who are suited to researching and getting the information back out to the members using whichever methods we decide work best for PSFC membership!

What we do already know about who we'll be looking for:

Since the AWC's focus is on providing members with animal welfare-related information so they can purchase items according to their values, research skills and respectful communication skills will be key for us. We will be striving for omnivores, vegetarians and vegans who can work collaboratively towards a common goal, which is providing accurate information about products to members (both on animal testing for cosmetics/household goods and animal treatment conditions for "food" animal products). We're not yet sure how the research we do will be communicated to the PSFC membership so holding off on asking for any specific skills in those areas.

Please stay tuned! If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at PSFCanimals@gmail.com

- Jesse

*photo courtesy of nickdigital/flickr.

(Tues 3/29 @7pm!) Vote for the Animal Welfare Committee at the General Meeting!

2011-03-25T12:55:00.005-04:00

We're finally on the General Meeting agenda for a vote! This vote will decide whether this committee will be formed for the PSFC!

This means if enough people raise their hands for us at the General Meeting this Tuesday, 3/29, we will become a reality and be able to serve the PSFC community! (You can even attend for workslot credit if you sign up in advance!)

photo via rikki's refuge

Meeting Location:
Congregation Beth Elohim Social Hall (Garfield Temple)
274 Garfield Pl. at 8th Ave.

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Why an Animal Welfare Committee?

Ever walked into the co-op with the assumption that all personal care items and household goods we carry are not tested on animals?

Ever assumed our meat/dairy conforms to specific care standards across the board?

Surprised to find out that's not always the case?

Come on down to the General Meeting and vote for us!

• What is the mission of the group?

Research and education to share with PSFC members on products as they relate to animals or animal welfare issues as they relate PSFC membership, focus is on researching animal-tested products and animal care standards on “food animals” an products. Examples – delineating products still tested animals and researching alternatives working with coordinators and their distributor information; overview of the different kinds of certification (animal testing/food animals), labels, and what that means; animal-related vendor profiles; films relevant to animal product issues, etc.

• Does the committee have specific goals, and if so what are they?

Education, clarifying labeling, researching different labeling claims and member concerns regarding vendors.

• Does the committee have a goal or final product (for example a report on an issue) in mind?

Clarifying which PSFC products are tested on animals and meat and dairy fact sheets regarding various certification labeling.

Come Talk About Us! 9/28 General Meeting

2010-09-17T15:21:00.002-04:00

We're excited to announce that we have a 45-minute spot on the September 28th General Meeting!

This will be a discussion item about the possibility of the Animal Welfare Committee - we'll be giving a 15 minute overview of our proposal and then taking questions for discussion. (The vote for this to be a work-credit squad will need to happen at a date after this general forum discussion.)

So if you have questions about the committee or you want to come out to support the idea (and get workslot credit?), we'd be thrilled to meet you in person!

And you can always email us comments, questions, suggestions at psfcanimals@gmail.com

Jesse & Patrick

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SEPTEMBER 2010 General Meeting Agenda

Tuesday, September 28, 7:00 p.m.

Meeting Location:
Congregation Beth Elohim Social Hall (Garfield Temple)
274 Garfield Pl. at 8th Ave.

Items will be taken up in the order given. Times in parentheses below are suggestions. More information on each item may be available at the entrance table at the meeting. Please take the first 15 minutes of the meeting to read the available materials.

Item #1:
August 2010 GM Decision is Void
(45 minutes)

Discussion: "Discussion to clarify that the General Meeting decision made on August 31, 2010, regarding a legal action involving the store called Barneys Co-op is void."

Explanation: “The agenda item taken up by the August 2010 GM regarding a legal action involving the store called Barneys Co-op had been scheduled as a discussion item only. The General Meeting may not vote on any agenda item that has not been announced as a proposal to the membership in advance of the meeting.“
—submitted by Elizabeth Tobier

Item #2:
Animal Welfare Committee
(45 minutes)

Discussion: "To form an Animal-Welfare Committee which would provide animal-related reference materials, articles and product suggestions (alternatives to PSFC products as they relate to animals)."

Explanation: “Focus on research and education to share with Coop members on products as they relate to animals or animal welfare issues. This will include researching animal-tested products and animal care standards on "food-animal" products that the Coop carries or is asked to carry. Examples: a) identifying products still tested on animals contrary to the Coop's Environmental Statement and researching alternatives, working with the coordinators and their distributor information; b) educational overview of the different kinds of animal testing/"food-animal" welfare standards certification labels and what they mean; c) vendor profiles as they relate to animal-related products at the PSFC (could be farm visits, could be interviews); d) films relevant to animal product issues."—submitted by Jesse Oldham and Patrick Kwan

For information on how to place an item on the Agenda, please see the center pages of the Linewaiters' Gazette and/or contact the Membership Office.

The Agenda Committee minutes and the status of pending agenda items are available in the Membership Office.

Update!

2010-08-12T19:56:00.007-04:00

A big thank you to everyone who came to the blog to leave feedback or emailed us your thoughts. Your feedback is helping us form what the Animal Welfare Committee should be to best serve the PSFC members with regards to animal welfare issues.

Below you'll find an update on three topics:

scheduling of the General Meeting at which our proposal will be presented
who will be on the committee
next steps

1) When do we get to present and vote on the Animal Welfare Committee at the General Meeting?

As you know from the previous post, our proposal was submitted to the Agenda Planning Committee in April. We were informed that May and June were full and July was the annual meeting. Unfortunately we didn't make it onto the August agenda but we're hoping to be on the September 28th General Meeting Agenda, which is planned the evening of September 7th during the Agenda Planning Committee meeting.

2) Who will be on the committee?

This is a good question, and one that's in the PSFC new committee paperwork. Who is needed for the committee will be informed by the feedback that steers what the committee will be. So, when we collect what PSFC members want, we'll need to find the right skill sets we need to be on the squad to make it happen!

To use a hypothetical example: if your suggestions for the Animal Welfare Committee include creating educational resources, the skill set we might look for would be a general knowledge of animal welfare, research and writing/editing skills.

The more information we collect about what PSFC members want the committee to be, the better idea we'll have as to what skills need to be present in committee members to make the committee successful.

3) Next steps?

Collect as much feedback as possible from PSFC members as to what we think the committee needs to provide for members
Get on the General Meeting Agenda
Get voted in as a committee at the General Meeting
Complete the new committee governance paperwork and submit it to the PSFC
Begin assembling the squad members we'd need to make the squad successful

Welcome!

2010-04-24T18:28:00.004-04:00

Hello!

We're a group of Park Slope Food Coop members who came together after realizing during our PFSC shopping trips that, while there are a lot of animal-friendly products on the PSFC's shelves, there was still a lot of room for improvement!

In our conversations with other members, some were surprised to hear that we still carried any items that are tested on animals (even though our policy says the PSFC avoids such products) and others expressed confusion regarding animal-treatment labeling ("What's the difference between grass-fed and free-range?).

After having these conversations and wishing for a way to help inform PSFC shoppers who are interested in animal welfare, what's animal-tested (and PSFC alternatives), what's "free-range", etc. we thought we would enlist other PSFC who share these concerns to join us in creating a committee to specifically address these issues.

We're hoping to create a workslot credit committee that would be in service to the PSFC membership regarding animal welfare. This page was created to gauge PSFC membership interest and we're curious to know what you would like this committee do for you as a PSFC member.

Please feel free to comment here or email us directly at PSFCanimals@gmail.com - we look forward to hearing from you!!

- Jesse + Patrick :)

Following is the text for the general meeting agenda item submission we submitted. When this is on the agenda of a future general meeting, the attendees will have the opportunity to vote to create this committee. If you would like to know when this happens, please email us at PSFCanimals@gmail.com.

Text of Proposal Item (printed on agenda, 25 words or less)

To form a Park Slope Food Coop Animal Welfare Committee which would provide animal-related reference materials, articles and product suggestions (alternatives to PSFC products as they relate to animals).

Explanation (40-100 words) This info will help the Agenda Committee in preparing the GM agenda and will not be printed with the agenda. You're invited to share your thoughts on the proposal with members through the Gazette letters section.

8-10 member workslot credit squad proposal.

Focus: research and education to share with PSFC members on PSFC products as they relate to animals or animal welfare issues as they relate to the PSFC membership.

This will include researching animal-tested products and animal care standards on "food-animal" products that the PSFC carriers or is asked to carry.

Examples:

a) delineating PSFC products still tested on animals contrary to the PSFC's Environmental Statement and researching alternatives, working with the coordinators and their distributor information;
b) educational overview of the different kinds of animal testing/"food-animal" welfare standards certification labels and what they mean;
c) vendor profiles as they relate to animal-related products as the PSFC (could be farm visits, could be interviews);
d) films relevant to animal product issues