A Mom's Journey to Health
A sharing of a mom's journey to healthy living. Through trial and error she has learned a lot about what to eat and what to avoid and how to make a household of four work without a microwave or boxed and processed food. Step by step solutions to a mom's biggest problem!
Friday, February 10, 2012
Super fun and healthy dessert
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Organic or not??? That is the question.
Animal Welfare
At Whole Foods Market, we're dedicated to helping you make informed choices about the food you eat. It's often easy to forget that the burger, steak or drumstick on your plate was once an animal. How was that animal raised? How was it treated? Where did it come from? What about added hormones and antibiotics? Was its growth artificially accelerated to get to market sooner and reduce feed cost? We are committed to answering these questions.
The 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards
We've chosen to partner with Global Animal Partnership to certify our producers' animal welfare practices. We're rolling out their 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards in every Whole Foods Market store in the United States and Canada.
Global Animal Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to continually improving the lives of farm animals. They have developed the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Standards that rate how pigs, chickens and cattle are raised for meat. Standards for other species (turkeys, lambs and others) are in development, so stay tuned and be sure to look for Global Animal Partnership 5-Step ratings the next time you stop by our meat department.
It's important to note that getting to Step 1 is a great accomplishment! Step 1 requires more from our farmers and ranchers than we have ever asked before. The Step ratings are assigned by independent third-party certifiers using auditors trained by Global Animal Partnership.
Look for this rating system when you choose our beef, pork or chicken. It's your way of knowing how the animals were raised for the meat you are buying.
See our Frequently Asked Questions about the 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards.
Step 1No crates, no cages | Step 2Enriched environment | Step 3Enhanced outdoor access | Step 4Pasture centered | Step 5Animal centered; all physical alterations prohibited | Step 5+Animal centered; entire life on same farm |
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Animals live their lives with space to move around and stretch their legs. | Animals are provided with enrichments that encourage behavior that's natural to them — like a bale of straw for chickens to peck at, a bowling ball for pigs to shove around, or a sturdy object for cattle to rub against. | Pigs and chickens might live in buildings but they all — yes, each and every one of them — have access to outdoor areas. | When living outdoors, chickens get to forage, pigs get to wallow and cattle get to roam. | Animals get to live their whole lives with all the body parts they were born with. | Animals raised to Step 5+ standards must be born and live their entire lives on one farm. |