Park Slope Food Coop Animal Welfare Committee

by Kama Einhorn, Animal Welfare Committee You may have noticed a "certified humane" logo on some coop meats—but only a few. Why are there plenty of small, local family farmers raising animals well, but so few humane-certified items available in the coop—or in any store or restaurant? Here’s the four-part problem: All farmers must use USDA-approved slaughterhouses. Farmers cannot legally sell meat unless it’s been “harvested” at an approved “processing plant” (otherwise, they can only eat it themselves or give it away). Obviously, it’s crucial for a government agency to ensure that disease is kept out of the public food supply, but the USDA is a bloated bureaucracy whose rules favor factory farms (with fast “line speeds,” which is poor for humane slaughter) and help them to thrive. And factory farms are responsible for E. coli, Salmonella outbreaks and mad cow disease (the USDA lets factory farms feed dead, diseased cows to living cows). Small farmers are limited...

by  Deborah Diamant, Animal Welfare Committee Are you looking for a unique day trip to flee the city with your friends or family in tow? The Animal Welfare Committee encourages you to visit one of the several farm animal sanctuaries located within a few hours of the Coop before the summer ends. Some are even reachable via mass transit! Spending a day at a farm animal sanctuary is not just a humane alternative to visits to zoos and circuses--they enable us to interact with animals up close in an environment where they receive proper care. While stroking the radiant coat of a Holstein cow and standing among frolicking goats, we observe up close each animal’s unique personality. This simply is not possible through a cage in a zoo and from a seat in a circus. The purpose of farm animal sanctuaries, though, is to provide a caring environment where animals mistreated as products in commercial farms can recover and live the remainder of their lives free of cages and substandard...

[From the December 25, 2014 edition of the Linewaiter's Gazette ] By Kama Einhorn, Animal Welfare Committee The welfare of animals involved in food production has been a major concern for many since the beginning of our industrialized food system. Coop members are, of course, no exception. The Coop’s Animal Welfare Committee seeks to address these concerns by educating and providing facts to our fellow Coop members about what’s happening on the farms from which our animal products originate. In the 1960s, as factory farming became increasingly standard practice in the UK, the British government commissioned an investigation into the welfare of “intensively farmed animals.” Soon after, they created the Farm Animal Welfare Council, which developed a set of guidelines now known in the animal welfare movement as the Five Freedoms: Freedom from thirst and hunger: by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigor. Freedom from discomfort: b...

Just in time for Thanksgiving, the Animal Welfare Committee's 2013 Turkey Guide is here! We contacted the Coop's turkey vendors and interviewed them about  the conditions their birds live in, then organized the information in a handy chart for members. The Guide also explains the labels commonly found on meat products, like free-range and pasture-raised, and describes the festive turkey alternatives that the Coop carries. The Turkey Guide is laminated next to the turkeys, and take-home versions are also available there. You can find a larger version of the Guide online by clicking on the AWC Guides tab at the top of this page, and then clicking on Buying Turkeys at the Coop. Piper on behalf of the Animal Welfare Committee

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 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 ...

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” ...