You can also look for welfare certifications on products you buy—Animal Welfare Institute has a nice guide to which labels actually mean things. (Don’t settle for random good-sounding words on the package—some of them are basically meaningless or only provide very very weak guarantees!)
Personally, I feel comfortable buying meat that is certified GAP 4 or higher, and will sometimes buy GAP 3 or Certified Humane in a pinch. Products certified to this level are fairly uncommon but not super hard to find—you can order them from meat delivery services like Butcher Box, and many Whole Foods sell (a subset of) meat at GAP 4, especially beef and lamb (I’ve only ever seen GAP 3 or lower chicken and pork at my local Whole Foods though). You can use Find Humane to search for products in your area.
Specifically: humanely raised often indicates only that they were fed vegetarian feed. This made me so angry when I read the fine print and I think everyone involved should be sued into oblivion.
I’ve been doing this all my life. In the US, I buy Grass-Fed Pasture Raised Eggs by Coastal Hill (available in Good Eggs, Gus, and other grocery stores in the US) and Alexandre Farms milk and dairy products.
However, I wish it was this simple. Just recently, I learned that Alexandre Family Farms has been accused of serious animal welfare violations. Please skip if you’re sensitive to this information:
(There are more links, but those were the most handy in my bookmarks list.)
This is relevant because Alexandre Family Farms is, to date, one of the largest most humane organic farms in California and even the US. Their milk is one of the tastiest and most European-like. I was both sad and annoyed when I learned this.
All of that goes to say, don’t blindly trust these certifications. It’s likely on average they increase animal welfare, but it’s still plenty far ahead of suffering-free “humane” conditions.
You can also look for welfare certifications on products you buy—Animal Welfare Institute has a nice guide to which labels actually mean things. (Don’t settle for random good-sounding words on the package—some of them are basically meaningless or only provide very very weak guarantees!)
Personally, I feel comfortable buying meat that is certified GAP 4 or higher, and will sometimes buy GAP 3 or Certified Humane in a pinch. Products certified to this level are fairly uncommon but not super hard to find—you can order them from meat delivery services like Butcher Box, and many Whole Foods sell (a subset of) meat at GAP 4, especially beef and lamb (I’ve only ever seen GAP 3 or lower chicken and pork at my local Whole Foods though). You can use Find Humane to search for products in your area.
Specifically: humanely raised often indicates only that they were fed vegetarian feed. This made me so angry when I read the fine print and I think everyone involved should be sued into oblivion.
I’ve been doing this all my life. In the US, I buy Grass-Fed Pasture Raised Eggs by Coastal Hill (available in Good Eggs, Gus, and other grocery stores in the US) and Alexandre Farms milk and dairy products.
However, I wish it was this simple. Just recently, I learned that Alexandre Family Farms has been accused of serious animal welfare violations. Please skip if you’re sensitive to this information:
https://archive.md/newest/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/alexandre-farms-treatment-of-animals/677980/
https://www.peta.org/news/alexandre-family-farm/
https://www.farmforward.com/news/usda-confirms-animal-abuse-and-cruelty-at-alexandre-family-farm-dairy-now-admits-wrongdoing-legal-case-moves-forward/
(There are more links, but those were the most handy in my bookmarks list.)
This is relevant because Alexandre Family Farms is, to date, one of the largest most humane organic farms in California and even the US. Their milk is one of the tastiest and most European-like. I was both sad and annoyed when I learned this.
All of that goes to say, don’t blindly trust these certifications. It’s likely on average they increase animal welfare, but it’s still plenty far ahead of suffering-free “humane” conditions.