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!

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 [...]

Release No. 0137.09
Contact: Office of Communications (202) 720-4623
April 28, 2009
“I want to reiterate that U.S. pork is safe. While we in the U.S. are continuing to monitor for new cases of H1N1 flu, the American food supply is safe.
There is no evidence or reports that U.S. swine have been infected with this virus. USDA is [...]