YOU ARE. If you buy pork products produced by factory-farm methods, you’re contributing to the problem. While organizations including the Water Keeper Alliance are bringing lawsuits against violators, it’s important to make a statement with your purchasing dollar and by letting your state representatives know you won’t tolerate the dangers posed by animal factories.
It’s also important to remember that while regulations exist to safeguard the lives of pets, zoo animals, pack and livery animals, and animals working in the entertainment industry, those animals raised specifically for food and fiber are exempt from protection.
Adele Douglass, director of farm animal services for the American Humane Association (AHA), urges consumers to look for products that carry the Free Farmed logo. A voluntary program established by the AHA, the label ensures that the product is free of hormones and antibiotics, and that feed, veterinary records, and space-per-animal records have been carefully reviewed. The label also tells consumers that the animals in question were never subjected to gestation stalls, which confine sows to areas no larger than 18 to 24 inches wide and barely the length of the animal.
Want to learn more? Following is a list of producers who raise livestock in a humane, responsible manner, as well as resources that deal directly with factory farm issues.
APPLEGATE FARMS
Deli meats, bacon and ham sold at natural products stores.
www.applegatefarms.com 800.587.5858
duBRETON NATURAL PORK
Pork products sold wholesale to natural products stores.
www.dubreton.com
418.899.6711
IAN’S NATURAL FOODS
Frozen pork products.
www.iansnaturalfoods.com
781.284.1999
NEWMAN FARM
Sausage and pork products.
www.newmanfarm.com
417.938.4391
NIMAN RANCH
Roasts, bacon, sausage, ham, ribs and chops.
www.nimanranch.com
NORTH HOLLOW FARM
Vermont pork products.
www.naturalmeat.com
877.304.2333
VAN WIE NATURAL FOODS
Bacon, pork products.
www.vanwienaturalmeats.com
518.828.0533
LABEL INFORMATION
www.freefarmed.org
202.543.2335
AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION
www.americanhumane.org
800.227.4645
ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE
www.awionline.org
NATIONAL FARMERS UNION
www.nfu.org
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
State-by-state listings of activist contacts.
www.nrdc.org
SIERRA CLUB
www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms
WATERKEEPER ALLIANCE
www.keeper.org
914.422.4410
