Park Slope Food Coop Animal Welfare Committee

Further editing of our milk guide continued at this month's squad meeting. Additional areas for research were identified and a plan for where to place the guide in the coop was outlined.   We completed the initial planning of our guide about chicken and research tasks were assigned.   A discussion of branding of our committee took place. A logo will be designed and used in the future so coop members will easily recognize resources produced by our committee.   Deborah, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee

We spent the majority of this month's meeting focused on the content of our guide to milk at the coop, which will include information about dairy and non-dairy milks. We expect to have this guide completed soon after our June squad meeting.   Feedback was shared about our guides that have already gone to press and now appear in the aisles of the coop. We are pleased to see coop members reading the guides and we welcome your feedback at psfcanimals@gmail.com .   Final edits to a Linewaiter's Gazette article on animal testing were made.     Deborah, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee  

Did you know we are publishing and placing our guides in the coop's aisles? The Animal Welfare Committee provides clear, concise, and unbiased information for PSFC members in the following guides, which you can download from our blog or find in print when you next visit the coop. Guide to Animal Testing (last updated April 17, 2013)   Guide to Coop Eggs (last updated March 20, 2013)

We completed the editing of another new guide, Members Guide to Animal Testing. It made its debut at our Earth Day table on April 20th. The committee selected the topic of our next guide and discussed how to keep the guides current as information and product availability changes. Discussion pertaining to a coop-wide product policy continues.  Deborah, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee

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” ...

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: ...