If you’re going to dream, you might as well dream big, which explains Andrew Gunther’s ambitious plans for Animal Welfare Approved, a verification and labelling program for family farms.
Gunther, program director of Animal Welfare Approved, believes animal welfare will be as big or bigger than the organic movement by 2025.
He envisions a future where 10 percent of the pork, chicken and beef sold in the United States and Canada will be labelled with an Animal Welfare Approved seal.
“There’s no reason why that shouldn’t be, as consumers become more aware of what they want to buy and what they want to eat,” said Gunther, who lives in Austin, Texas.
Read Also
U.S. government investigates high input costs
The USDA and DOJ are investigating high input costs, but nothing is happening in Canada.
The labelling initiative is an offshoot of the Animal Welfare Institute, an American non-profit group with the broad mission of reducing the pain and fear inflicted on all animals, including protecting laboratory animals and abolishing factory farms.
Labelling is the latest manifestation of a trend in which the public and politicians are taking a more active interest in the way farm animals are raised and slaughtered. It has grown from a preoccupation of fringe groups to animal welfare ballot initiatives in six American states.
Animal Welfare Approved’s audit and labelling program is designed to allow consumers to make buying decisions based on animal management practices.
Since its inception in 2006, the program has audited and approved animal welfare seals for hundreds of family farms in the United States.
In March, it announced that its labelling program would be available in Canada.
“We have had a significant response to the label (in Canada), from farmers large and small,” said Gunther, who worked for Whole Foods, a large U.S.-based organic and natural food retailer, before joining Animal Welfare Approved in 2008.
“We have tens, rather than severals (Canadian farmers who are interested),” he said, noting there have been requests from Quebec to translate the label into French.
Gunther said Animal Welfare Approved’s primary mandate is to audit practices on family farms and verify that producers meet or exceed science-based standards for animal welfare.
The audit is free for producers because donations to the Animal Welfare Institute, a non-profit charity, cover the cost of the service.
Patricia Whisnant, a veterinarian and producer of grass-fed beef in Doniphan, Missouri, uses the service.
She said the seal of approval is invaluable for her operation because it makes promoting and selling grass-fed beef much easier.
“That opens doors, marketing wise, that wouldn’t otherwise be open,” said Whisnant, who with her husband and six children runs a herd of 1,200 grass fed cattle near Missouri’s border with Tennessee.
“They (the consumer) like the idea of having a verification of what I tell them, either on the website or in a brochure or on the phone, is exactly the real deal.”
Although the objective of 10 percent of the American meat market is still a long way off, Gunther said the Animal Welfare Approved label is already present in farmer’s markets, retailers and restaurants.
“We have our seal on the best burger bar in Austin,” he said.
“Our seal is all over the place.”
