23Sep 09
Proposed Regulations Favor Interstate Commerce, Independent Plants
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.
15Sep 09
Cow-Pooling: great for consumers, but what about the farmers?
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 Whole Foods. Cow-pooling is being promoted as an excellent way for consumers to make purchasing high welfare, pasture raised meats affordable, but do the farmers benefit…
11Sep 09
Food Safety Begins at the Farm
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.
01Sep 09
UK Consumers: Cast a Vote for Farm Animal Welfare in the 2009 RSPCA Good Business Awards
Will Sainsbury's be the top vote-getter? Is Marks & Spencer poised for a win? Or will The Co-operative come out victorious? It's up to the consumer in this year's RSPCA Good Business Awards, designed to encourage UK supermarkets to do more for farm animal welfare. The 2009 awards mark the first time voting has been open to the public and three finalists are vying for the title of People's Choice Supermarket--Marks & Spencer, The Co-operative and Sainsbury's.
29Aug 09
Tainted Beef: Is Organic Just as Dangerous as Feedlot?
A recent study by Kansas State University concluded that in terms of presence of E. coli O157:H7, there was no difference between "organic," "naturally-raised" and conventionally raised beef. Feedlots provide all of the conventionally raised beef and the vast majority of organic and naturally-raised beef. Only a small percentage of organic beef is grassfed and finished on pasture.
The study reported that feces from 14% of the organic and naturally-raised cattle contained the pathogenic strain of E. coli, and that this number was comparable to conventional systems. What the study did NOT include were samples from cattle that were pasture-finished or grassfed, surprisingly, not a requirement of either organic or naturally-raised systems. I imagine that there are many consumers who will be surprised to learn this.
