Park Slope Food Coop Animal Welfare Committee

Our 12/17/12 squad meeting focused primarily on internal housekeeping issues and included a meeting with General Coordinator Ann Herpel. The Animal Welfare Committee reported back at the November General Meeting .  We introduced ourselves to new faces and discussed our recent accomplishments, namely the Thanksgiving pamphlet. We decided to make the Animal WelfareApproved “Food Labeling for Dummies” Guide our primary reference tool when surveying our suppliers and researching the claims on packaging. Check out the Guide if you’re not already familiar with it! More work has been completed regarding the development of farm vendor/product animal welfare sheets , as well as an editorial calendar for the committee. Deborah, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee

Most of our most recent squad meeting discussed our work on the Thanksgiving Dinner animal welfare flyer - what we did well and what we might change. There is not much to update except for a small change in strategy for the Farm Animal Welfare focus: We recently indicated that we'd like to create a list of holiday-specific food to build animal welfare information resources.  We changed our direction to:  We will be focusing on building some regular farm vendor/product animal welfare sheets first and, once that's done, in the future we'll focus on holiday-specific items the co-op carries. This will enable us to provide information about our regular farm vendors before moving on to more specialized, seasonal purchases. Jesse on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee

As mentioned in last update, we've collaborated with PSFC staff to put together an animal welfare flyer outlining parameters of turkey treatment in addition to the multiple veggie turkey alternatives the co-op carries. You can find the Choosing Your Thanksgiving Dinner flyer as a pdf here, and at the co-op both at the turkey case and in front of the freezer cases in aisle 3 where the Field Roasts and Tofurkeys are! There is what seems to be a a discrepancy between this flyer and the co-op's flyer pertaining to Plainville Farms.  They are listed on the co-op's flyer as "free-range" but are a but NO under our "Able to forage outdoors/pasture-raised" column.  This is because the birds are housed in indoor facilities so they are not pasture-raised outdoors, although technically they are "free-range" because they are not caged in the indoor facility.  We made this distinction in the interest of fully transparency for animal welfare conditions

Hello Readers, Here is your (late) update from our 10/22 meeting! But first, we want you to know that we've been working with the staff members Bill Malloy, Joe Holtz and Joe Szladek to put together animal welfare information outlining how the turkeys the co-op sells are treated .  We're hoping to have that finalized shortly and we want to thank the staffers for being so generous with their time and information.  The information we assemble will be a handout distributed at the PSFC so keep an eye out for it in the literature dispensers and we will try to include it on the blog as well.    photo by Slideshow Bruce Updates: (No) Animal Testing List -  This has been moving a little slowly but we're still gathering info, researching and updating the spreadsheet.  Please see the Animal Testing Co-Op Product Info page (there's a tab at the top of the blog, too) to see where we are now.  If you have questions about a specific product, please let us know at psf

Hello everyone! We recently had our second meeting as a full squad.  Here are our updates: Animal Testing Issues: The squad completed inventory of household products (aisle 5) The squad completed partial inventory of personal care products (aisle 4) We need to update online spreadsheet with new data and research products/companies that are still incomplete Since there are many products that are labeled "vegan", we'll be including a new column on our PSFC Product List - it will let you know whether all or some of a brand's products are vegan, since so many people are asking for this type of information (at this time we won't be reading ingredients lists for products that do NOT specify to discern whether they are vegan) We need to reach out to buyers of household and personal care items to see if there's an easier way to get inventory into our records and discuss products Please check out our PSFC Product List to check whether the products you buy

Hello readers, This post will give you an update on the new committee members and where the committee is moving forward! Meet & Greet Information Sessions: First of all, thank you to everyone who came out to the information sessions regarding the Animal Welfare Committee hosted at the PSFC in our Meeting Room.   It was great to be able to share our information and hear what you wanted to learn including which parts of animal welfare practices or standards are most confusing or concerning to you.   Kama and I were very glad to have met you all!   (So much so that I did one of these presentations on my birthday.) Meg, @ Farm Sanctuary (2004 beef cattle rescue ) What we heard at the July info sessions:   You’d like concise and easy-to-read information on food, personal care and household items Some people like the “negative message” shelf labeling idea (“ This product is tested on animals ”) and some like the “positive message” shelf labeling idea

We’re ready to add new members to the Animal Welfare Committee!   Applications due July 29th!   Please check out our mission before applying!   We are hosting two “All About the Coop’s New Animal Welfare Committee:  How to Get Involved” sessions July 22 nd and 24 t h , both at 7pm in the coop’s large upstairs meeting room.  We will be collecting applicant surveys at that meeting but if you are unable to make one of those meetings or want to apply earlier, you have the option of submitting your applicant survey via email – instructions below. Before you apply, you should know what we’re looking for! We are looking for folks who: -           Have a strong interest in animal welfare -           Have a strong collaborative spirit -           Work well with others -           Are able to learn quickly and willing to stay abreast of current animal welfare news -           Are able to do their work remotely -           Are accountable -           Might have conf

Canceled due to impending bad weather.

Howdy readers! We finally have some substantial research to post here for your use regarding which co-op products are not tested on animals and which are. The good news is that many of the products we carry are registered as cruelty-free either with Leaping Bunny (more stringent) or Cruelty-Free (less stringent).  You can find an overview of the two no-animal-testing certifications and information about company policies we created at that link. The bad news is that there are still a number of products we carry that are produced by companies who still test on animals.  Our spreadsheet: The spreadsheet lists the majority of the items carried in aisles 4 and 5 -- household and personal care products .  The US doesn't require any company to test household or personal care products on animals and PSFC's Environmental Policy says that we avoid carrying products tested on animals.  (Specifically that one of the criteria for co-op products is:  "Avoiding