Park Slope Food Coop Animal Welfare Committee

By Piper Hoffman Do you want to know whether the meat, dairy, or eggs you are buying came from animals who were treated humanely? You won’t find the answers on the packaging. Recent revelations about the conditions Perdue’s chickens suffer illustrate the problem: their “labels carry a seal of approval from the Department of Agriculture asserting that the bird was ‘raised cage free,’ and sometimes ‘humanely raised,’” Nicholas Kristof wrote in The New York Times. (“Abusing Chickens We Eat,” December 3, 2014.) Those descriptions are misleading at best. Coop members, however, can get reliable, detailed information that shoppers at conventional grocery stores don’t have. The Animal Welfare Committee publishes Guides for members about a number of product categories that detail the treatment of animals by the Coop’s vendors. With a Guide in hand it is easy to choose the most humane option the Coop offers and to avoid the others. The Members’ Guide to Coop Chicken is the latest example. ...

A little known fact about the egg industry is the number of male chicks who are killed in the process of producing eggs.  How does that happen?   Almost all hens in commercial operations are purchased from hatcheries that dispose of male chicks shortly after hatching since they only need the birds who will lay eggs – the females. The hatcheries need to wait for the eggs to hatch to “sex” the birds and identify males and females.  Females get sent to egg industry vendors and males get destroyed.  Methods of disposal include suffocation, gassing and grinding alive. These male chicks are not used as “meat” birds because their bodies are not as profitable as conventional broiler chickens (birds bred for and used as “meat” birds) and therefore have very little use and value to the agricultural industry.  The killing of male chicks is an unfortunate side effect of egg production. You may notice that there is a column on our Egg Guide that asks vendors “Fate...

We have an updated Dairy Milk Guide up on our blog and in the folders outside the milk case (near the butter)!  You can find this guide and all current guides here on the blog at the AWC Guides tab located at the top of the blog.   (Current guides:  Eggs: Animal Testing on Products; Dairy Milk) What's up our sleeve?  We'll be finalizing a Chicken Guide soon!  Keep an eye on Twitter and the blog! The seasonal Turkey/Seasonal Veggie Thanksgiving Options guide will also be happening this year - keep an eye out on Twitter and the blog! We will offer another Eating Vegan Workshop in 2015 but we're waiting until the large Meeting Room is available for booking again (it's currently slated for construction) so stay tuned for the 2015 date! Jesse, 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 our final edits to the "Members' Guide to Coop Eggs" and established a plan for the layout, review by Coop coordinators, and placement in the Coop’s egg case. Brief discussions were held about our upcoming animal testing article submission to the Linewaiter’s Gazette and establishing an animal-friendly product policy. Deborah, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee

We reviewed and edited the draft of our March deliverable, "Members' Guide to Coop Eggs" (working title), and identified where additional research is necessary. Housekeeping issues discussed included placing ads in the Linewaiter's Gazette and tracking our communication with Coop employees and the Coop's suppliers. Deborah, on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee