Mack Brook Farm is owned and run by Kevin Jablonski and Karen Christensen. Nestled between the Adirondack and Green Mountain ranges in New York, Kevin and Karen have made a comprehensive effort to preserve the land as well as its Scottish heritage. Argyle, New York was originally a Scotch land grant where many immigrants from Argyll, Scotland settled. Angus cattle, native to Scotland and bred from indigenous wild species, find the area a natural home and for this reason it was the breed that Kevin and Karen chose to raise on their farm.

As a small boy on his grandfather’s mushroom farm, with only a few goats, chickens, and pigs, Scott Hasselmann began dreaming of a farm of his own. Today he lives a two hour drive from the city and raises grassfed laying hens, pigs, cattle, and a dozen sheep with his wife Nena and their two children Georgie and Alexia.

Hut’s Hamburgers, an Austin tradition since 1939, has added that iconic symbol of Texas-the Longhorn-to its menu. Animal Welfare Approved Bandera Grassland of Tarpley, Texas is supplying the restaurant with pure Texas Longhorn beef from cattle that are direct descendants of the Iberian cattle brought by the Spaniards in the 1500s. The Animal Welfare Approved seal is an assurance to consumers that cattle from Bandera Grassland have been treated according to the highest welfare standards.

“We were interested in the beef because of its unique history and strong identification with Texas, but what sold us on the burger was the spectacular taste,” said Michael Hutchinson, the owner of Hut’s, which is regularly voted as having the best burgers in Austin and is known nationwide for its innovative menu. “Our customers love it. It tastes like the beef you used to be able to get 150 years ago-like the beef you might have eaten on cattle drives. It’s got big, authentic Texas flavor. Having the beef come from an Animal Welfare Approved ranch is an added bonus, because Austin is a town that cares about sustainable agriculture and animal welfare.”

Larry and Jacque are growers o’naturale. They have peaches, table grapes, strawberries and blackberries. Yes, they also grow veggies from A-Z. With 8 acres in production using pesticide-free methods they stay pretty busy. One of the keys for them is the use of chicken manure from their flock of 100 heritage breed chickens for fertilizer. Even before they had heard of Animal Welfare Approved they were using humane practices raising and handling their birds. It was a perfect fit, and they ended-up being the first poultry farmers in Oklahoma to be certified by Animal Welfare Approved.

We wanted to share news about a new website published by the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network, nichemeatprocessing.org, which was designed to provide information for smaller meat processors working with local, organic or grassfed products.
This resource should be helpful, providing information on processing regulations, mobile processing units, and marketing information. Please see the topics [...]

We recently had the pleasure of attending the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association’s 14th annual Piedmont Farm Tour in the North Carolina triangle region. This is a self-guided tour encompassing 40 farms, where visitors pay by the carload to attend as many or as few as they wish. We had three farms on the tour this year: Baldwin Beef (grassfed Charolais cattle), Captain John S. Pope Farm (grassfed lamb), and Cane Creek Farm (pastured pigs). We met some wonderful people and had a great time talking with folks on the tour about Animal Welfare Approved and what being certified means (in between lamb burgers and popsicles!).

Congratulations to the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association for pulling of yet another successful tour. Each one gets better than the last!

Bob and Barb Corio are the proud owners of the Dakota Harvest Farm, located in Jefferson, South Dakota, where they raise pasture-fed Dorper sheep. The 160-acre family farm provides plenty of room for the lambs, who are born and raised naturally with their mothers on the pastures, to roam and enjoy the fresh air, sunshine, and clean water that the southeastern South Dakota landscape affords.

Rumors swirled that 1,200 people were expected at the Brooklyn Food Conference (BFC) on Saturday, May 2 at John Jay High School in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We were certainly surprised to find a projected 3,000 people in attendance and we even ran out of most of our materials!

It was an honor to be invited to speak on the panel, “Our industrial meat complex: Hazardous to our health and our habitat” moderated by Kerry Trueman (co-founder of EatingLiberally.org) and to present testimony at the Public Hearing on Food Policy and Implementation with State and City Elected Officials. Animal Welfare Approved staffer Brigid Sweeney presented on behalf of independent pasture-based and high welfare farmers before State Senator Eric Adams, State Assembly member Jim Brennan, State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and City Council Member Leticia James. The public hearing was moderated by David Buckel, civil rights attorney and BFC volunteer organizer, who is determined to make Animal Welfare Approved’s voice heard for New York’s legislative agenda.

I spent many years talking to the press saying H5N1 was a disease of chickens. This morning I spoke with my son’s pig and explained H1N1 was a disease of humans. I hesitate to make light of the situation but sadly it is the truth: we can and do infect our animals. In [...]