The 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards

Have you ever wondered how the chicken on your plate was raised or treated during its lifetime? Well I recently came across this amazing idea to encourage consumers to become more educated on the meat that we ingest. It is becoming more important for people to know where their meat has come from. Therefore, the American supermarket chain Whole Foods Market has partnered with the Global Animal Partnership to introduce a rating system for its meat depending on animal welfare. This allows people to understand the quality of life their product has had before we purchase it.

<Image from: http://blogs.citypages.com/food/2011/02/whole_foods_let.php>

As most of you know, the better the environment an animal is in during its life, less stressed the animal is, the less toxins it has in its system and the better tasting the meat. Therefore the higher the rating, the better the meat is. The rating system starts from 1, which Whole Foods still classifies as a breakthrough because it eliminates all crates and cages from the animals, up to 5+ where the animals have the same life of those that are on a farm.

I personally think Australia should introduce this sort of system at major supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths rather than just their regular meat and free range meat. It will bring more attention to the caged meat industry and hopefully increase the animal welfare globally. So next time you are buying chicken, turkey, beef or pork, if it does't have any information about its welfare, it is most likely from a crammed cage or shed environment. 

Until next time,

Keep loving the green life