Supermarket adopts animal welfare standards for meat in Canada
August 7, 2011 Globe and Mail
Consumers concerned about the past life of their meats are about to get clarity from one chain of organic grocery stores.
Whole Foods Market Inc., a U.S.-based retailer that operates the country’s largest chain of natural and organic food supermarkets, is extending an innovative animal welfare labelling program to its six Canadian stores this week. Rolled out earlier this year across the United States, the labels on all chicken, beef and pork sold at Whole Foods tell consumers exactly how the animals were reared. Read more:
Comment: Lot of opinions on this subject although the public has been asking government to take action with regard to food labelling for decades. Consumers are entitled to accurate data in order to make better informed, healthier, and ethical choices. Raw and vegan diets are gaining popularity as we become more aware of the benefits not only to our health, but to the environment, and the animals, as well.
Is this how we define "Animal Compassion?" Whole Foods thinks so. Perhaps a more appropriate message is disrespect, betrayal, death, and commodification.
If one is critical of animal welfare reform and ‘happy’ exploitation it does not make one “divisive,” as some would say. What it means is that the individual understands that animal rights IS the rejection of animal exploitation. The goal is NOT to make the public more comfortable with it.
PETA Files False-Advertising Complaint Against Whole Foods
June 4, 2015 Veg News
The animal-rights group asserts that the grocer’s “humane meat” isn’t so humane after all. In a complaint filed today with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) calls out Whole Foods Market for misrepresenting its meat products at the food giant’s Washington, DC locations.
By using slogans like “thanks for caring about animals” and touting its “strong focus on animal welfare,” PETA says that the meat sold at Whole Foods can still come from animals who were unnaturally confined, mutilated, scalded alive, and dehorned without painkillers—all things that the advertising doesn’t tell shoppers. According to PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman, “Whole Foods' promises of 'humane' meat are as empty as they are unethical, deceptive, and apparently unlawful.” PETA is calling on DC authorities to “protect well-intentioned shoppers from being duped into buying the flesh of animals” treated in this way.
June 16, 2017 Amazon has agreed to buy Whole Foods for $13.4 billion. Grocery stores have spent the last several years fighting against online and overseas entrants.
Find out more about Whole Foods: http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html
March 17 2013 Fantasy in every scoop: When lies become truth misleading and false advertising dupe the public
January 28, 2014 Super Bowl and farm animal care; The A&W fallout
- Related: (Feb.23/14) Market butcher forced to stop displaying meat and game because 'townies' object:
- Family firm targeted with anonymous hate mail because of carcasses hanging in the window
June 11, 2015 Animal welfare group says Costco egg supplier mistreats hens
Comment: All very interesting. We’ll see how this unfolds, but in the meantime, please continue being a voice for our animal friends. Volume and profits are the key drivers in the industry with all animals treated as mere commodities, expendable production machines.
The animal liberation is making progress, one person at a time. We not only have an obligation, but we have the power to stop this madness. Their liberation is our liberation.
Read how scientists — Dr. Shiv Chopra, Margaret Haydon and Gerard Lambert — had for years valiantly resisted repeated efforts by Health Canada management to pressure them into approving the release of antibiotics, hormones and chemicals into the food supply without the legally required evidence of human safety. They asserted that this pressure came from the highest levels of the bureaucracy — the Privy Council Office — at the urging of powerful corporations. Effectively silencing Canada’s whistleblowers
Comment: We are well into the 21st century. How is it that the exploitation and slaughter of animals be the foundation of an economy? Animal agriculture, like all exploitation of animals, is fundamentally inhumane and abusive, and we all know it, whether we admit it to ourselves or not. We cannot afford to look away, be silent, or participate any longer. While legal changes take time, we can all rethink our existing habits and make ethical decisions today. No living being should be regarded as a commodity for capital!
It's not food, it's violence, a campaign by Direct Action Everywhere (DxE), began in October, 2013 & has united animal rights activists in 67 cities and 17 countries, including in Vancouver.
October 19,
2014
RAN gets FOIA; Finds out more
about Iowa Rabbit
Read more: Rabbits raised for meat, saved in N. Van.; arbitrary categorization of animals; moral inconsistency
April 24, 2012 WSPAs new report: Experts challenge sustainability of Canada's food system
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) has released some alarming findings from a report commissioned to look at the wide-ranging impacts of Canada's animal agriculture practices.
What's On Your Plate? The Hidden Costs of Industrial Animal Agriculture exposes the destructive impacts of intensive livestock operations (ILOs) on our health, the environment, animal welfare and rural Canada. "Intensive livestock operations or ILOs are producing drug resistant super bugs, destroying our planet's life support system and transforming the social fabric of our rural communities" says Melissa Matlow, WSPA Campaigns Manager, Humane and Sustainable Agriculture.
The report also exposes the real costs of our food. We are seeing the results of our broken system through the escalation of food safety and public health issues. "Food-borne illnesses are costing our healthcare system between $12 and $14 billion annually", says report contributor Dr. Eva Pip. Animal agriculture uses more land and water than any other human activity. "The running of ILOs also involves significant energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions", Dr. Tony Weis.
ILOs are costing Canadian tax directly as well. As Darrin Qualman points out, "Government of Canada data shows that hog ILOs couldn't exist without huge tax-funded subsidies". Farm animals are paying a high price too. They suffer painful mutilations, bred to grow faster and crammed into small cages, all to make ILOs possible. "There is solid evidence that our industrial farming practices are causing acute suffering for animals," concludes Dr. Ian Duncan.
Key report findings:
-
The huge amounts of manure from ILOs contain antibiotic residues, heavy metals and pathogens (like E. coli). When applied on to fields or illegally dumped in ditches, these toxins end up in our drinking water and on crops. It also flows into lakes and rivers, killing fish
-
Non-therapeutic use of antibiotics is causing drug resistant super bugs to be found on ILOs in manure and in groundwater near fields — risking the effectiveness of live-saving medicines
-
ILOs are causing species loss, soil erosion and lake and river pollution
-
Tax-payers are subsidizing the largest industrial farms. Hog farms with annual revenues over $1million collected 72% of the subsidies in 2009. Since 1996, Canadians have given nearly $4 billion to subsidize the hog industry
-
ILOs have caused the hollowing out of rural communities as increasing debt, diminished quality of life and soaring unemployment mean businesses, people and infrastructure are abandoning these areas
-
Painful mutilations done to farm animals (beak severing, hot branding, teeth breaking, etc) without anesthetic would be illegal if performed on a cat or dog and are purely surgical solution to human-made problems
-
WSPA is calling for changes by all levels of government to policies and practices that will safe-guard the health of Canadians, protect our environment, revitalize rural communities and improve the lives of farm animal across the country.
Report recommendations:
- Phase out painful mutilations (de-beaking, castration, etc) performed without anaesthetic or require anaesthetic be given
- Support the Canadian Medical Association’s call to require veterinary prescriptions for all agriculture antibiotic use
- Work with industry and farmers to end the worst confinement systems (battery cages, sow stalls, veal crates, etc.)
- Redirect farm subsidies to support family farmers and to encourage more humane and sustainable farming practice
- Regulate industrial livestock operations like other major polluting industries
- Pass a new federal law requiring labelling that would identify production methods to help Canadian consumers choose free-range, local and antibiotic free meat, milk and eggs
May 31, 2018 How Agencies Ushered in Factory Farming | Nebo Agency
Over 99 percent of farm animals are raised in conditions that make Dante’s Inferno seem like paradise. We enabled the lie. We enabled the slaughter. We enabled the hellish conditions that billions of animals each year call life. But advertisers and marketers know the truth. And when activists go undercover and reveal the shocking realities, we are all horrified. Join the fight to end the inhumanity and cruelty. https://www.neboagency.com/blog/how-agencies-ushered-in-factory-farming/