Clayton Farms is a small farm in the northern part of Granville County, North Carolina. Owner Leshea Clayton’s goal is to procure amazing food in a conscientious manner. He raises a variety of breeds of fine pork but mostly Tamworth, Berkshire, and Farmers Hybrid. The breeds Leshea raises are specially selected for superior meat quality and hardiness for outdoor living.

Many people have become familiar with Bryan Voltaggio as one of the dynamic season six competitors on Bravo’s Top Chef—but did you also know he’s a committed supporter of humane farming and serves Animal Welfare Approved lamb at VOLT, his highly regarded Frederick, Maryland restaurant?

Animal Welfare Approved recently joined AWA farmer Craig Rogers on his delivery run to VOLT (Craig supplies VOLT’s lamb) and had the opportunity to speak to Chef Bryan about the program and its farmers. “Chef Bryan was excited to meet with us and hear about our mission,” reports Beth Hauptle, Director of Marketing and Public Relations. “He is interested in offering more Animal Welfare Approved products on his menu and we were able to put him in touch with additional Animal Welfare Approved farmers.”

Animal Welfare Approved is proud to have Chef Bryan among the chefs who enthusiastically support our program.

The USDA’s Federal Safety and Inspection Service recently proposed regulations that will allow certain state-inspected plants to ship meat and poultry in interstate commerce. This impressive development is part of USDA’s larger initiative, “Know Your Farmers, Know Your Food,” which seeks to develop economic opportunities within regional and local food systems. Secretary Vilsack and Under Secretary Mande are to be applauded for such a far-sighted decision, one which could have a transformational effect on independent livestock producers.

The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) held its 4th annual Eastern Triangle Farm Tour this past weekend. This year’s tour featured four AWA farms, including Dew Dance Farm, MAE Farm, Rare Earth Farms and Doug Brown of Fowl Attitude Farm, giving a presentation. AWA staff members Julie Munk, Brigid Sweeney and Emily Lancaster were present at three of the farms and had a great time meeting everyone and sharing information about our program. If you missed the tour, read on for our reports from the field!

Cow-Pooling – the practice of getting neighbors, family and friends together to buy meat in bulk to reduce costs and make use of the entire animal-was recently featured in Time Magazine. Time illustrates a $10-$12/lb price difference when comparing the price of cow pooled strip steak to the price of strip steak sold at [...]

This coming weekend (September 19th & 20th) the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association will hold its 4th Annual Eastern Triangle Farm Tour. Visitors will be able to tour 20 different farms in the Raleigh, NC area with the purchase of one $25 button. Each button admits a full carload, so pack your friends and family in and come see where your food comes from!

We at Animal Welfare Approved applaud the USDA and HHS for creating an important and useful new website, www.foodsafety.gov. The site’s purpose is to help consumers find consolidated up to date information on food safety and food recalls.

We want to remind our readers that food safety begins at the farm and is directly related to the farming system utilized. Between January 1, 1994 and November 31, 2007, over 800 separate meat product recalls took place across the United States – equivalent to over 300 million pounds of meat and poultry products. Nearly all of the recalls were the result of the potential contamination of factory-farmed meats with two types of food-poisoning bacteria: Listeria and E. coli.

We know that a safer, welfare-friendly alternative to feedlot beef already exists. Scientists have shown that meat from grassfed cattle – such as those raised by Animal Welfare Approved farmers – is less likely to harbor dangerous food-poisoning bacteria, such as E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria.

Steve and Dianne Proffitt began their grassfed beef operation in 2000 out of a passion for farming and living close to the land. They have almost 70 head of Scottish Aberdeen/commercial Cross Angus cattle. Well-suited to forage and also with excellent mothering abilities, the herd thrives on 100% USDA certified organic pastures, without added hormones, and are never confined to a feedlot.

Willow Knoll Farm, located in upstate NY, was an active small dairy in the 1960’s when the barn burned down. When Kellie and Bruce Maitland purchased the 131 acres, they began to put in motion a plan to bring the land back to a productive balanced farm. Abandoned meadows were reclaimed back to good hay land, wetlands were fenced off to keep cattle from contaminating the local watershed, and suitable lands were cleared and fenced for pastures.

FROM OUR FRIENDS AT SLOW FOOD

Dear members, supporters and friends,

On Labor Day, more than 20,000 people came together in all 50 states to tell Congress it’s time to give kids real food at school. If you went to an Eat-In, we’d like to say thank you. And if you’re one of the Slow Food Chapter Leaders and Eat-In Organizers who put incredible time and energy into the 300 Eat-Ins that took place nationwide, we’d like to shout thank you — you made the day possible.

The momentum helped us surpass our Labor Day petition goal – there are more than 20,000 signatures online, another 10,000 on paper, and many more still coming in. That’s a huge show of support. When Congress starts debating the Child Nutrition Act this fall, we’ll be able to take those signatures to legislators and make a strong case for reform.