OTTAWA — Word of natural farming procedures is a selling point for meat in foodservice, and the tune is the same at Whole Foods Market Inc.
The U.S.-based grocery chain is extending its new animal welfare label program (currently in place in the U.S) to its Canadian stores, The Globe and Mail reports. The brand’s 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards, an initiative born out of a partnership with the Global Animal Partnership, educates customers on how and where animals such as pigs, chicken and cattle were raised and the treatment they received prior to slaughter. Animals with a Step-1 rating weren’t raised in crates or cages, and those with Step-5 designation spent their lives on one farm.
Don Mills, vice-president of the Canadian food change organization Local Foods Plus, told The Globe the effort to educate buyers on animal welfare issues is continuous. “That education has to be passed along to the eaters,” he told the newspaper. “Farmers, like everyone else, are trying to respond to the market. They will give you the sort of food you want.”
Check out wholefoodsmarket.com for more on this animal welfare initiative.
