Transparency can be a big positive for farm animal welfare
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“Transparency” is a topic we embrace in our farm animal welfare program.
After all, producers who earn Certified ranking have passed an exacting, third-party examination that includes more-than 200 standards certified by the American Humane Association. You can’t be much more transparent than that.
Some producers have taken transparency to the next level. For example, the folks at JS West feature the “Hens Live” streaming video feed that shows anyone with an internet connection how its hens are faring.
At the same time, transparency can have its limits, as this interesting column by Mark Klaus in Feedstuffs points out. Give it a read and let us know what you think.
I see where the writer is coming from but I do think that we, as consumers, have every right to demand as much or as little transparency as we want. We are the people who pay for the end product, we are the reason that livestock producers have jobs. I don’t mean to sound arrogent, I’m just trying to state the facts. That’s the beauty of the US economic system when it’s healthy and functional. I don’t think it’s very healthy these days, but that’s a different discussion. As a consumer who also works in agriculture even I feel as though our system is failing us. I want to purchase my food conscientiously but I’m hindered by the lack of transparency in many of the grocery isles. What do I do? Well, I’m one of the fortunate and few people who can take the time to go out of my way to do the research and who can afford to pay extra to eat in a way that I feel good about – I hope that in doing so I am helping at least a little bit to change the way we shop for food. But I can’t do it alone.