Whole Foods' Animal Compassion

Posted by Stephanie Gallagher Oct 25, 2006

Whole Foods has always been a sort of utopia for vegetarians, organic and natural foods-lovers and foodies of all kinds. Now, according to an article in the New York Times, Whole Foods will soon debut an "animal compassionate" label on some of its beef, chicken and pork to signify that the meat was raised in a humane manner before being slaughtered.

So what's the difference between "animal compassionate" and "organic"? For starters, the animal compassionate label is unique to Whole Foods and is not regulated by the U.S. FDA, as the "organic" label is.

But honestly, that only makes a difference to me if you think Whole Foods is somehow going to cheat on the label. I rather doubt it -- after all, why would they spend three years developing it, just to cheat on it?

So beyond that, here are the other differences:

• Organic meat is raised without antibiotics or hormones
• Organic meat is never fed animal by-products

According to Whole Foods, animal compassionate meat is raised with those standards, plus the environments and conditions under which animals are raised are designed to support their physical, emotional and behavioral needs as well.

For more info, visit the Whole Foods web site. It has more detailed descriptions of what "animal compassionate" means.