David Pitman, Pitman Family Farms

David Pitman is a lifelong poultry farmer, representing his family’s 60-year poultry operation in California’s Central Valley. He has a degree in agricultural business, and serves as president of the California Cultural Heritage Poultry Association and as an executive board member of the California Poultry Federation. David has implemented certified Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified and G.A.P. 5-Step programs at Pitman Family Farms, which raise Steps 2, 3 and 5 chickens, as well as Steps 3 and 5 turkeys.

Cheryl Queen is the vice president of communications and corporate affairs for Compass Group North America, a leading foodservices management and support services company based in Charlotte, NC. Cheryl brings a wealth of foodservice knowledge to the complement of the GG.A.P.AP Board, and additionally has served as Board of Advisors Chair of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at NC State University, and on the Board of the Fair Foods Standards Council.

Cheryl Queen, Compass Group North America

“As consumers become increasingly interested in where their food comes from, G.A.P. plays a critical role in providing them with confidence in the food they’re eating,” said Queen. “For several years my family has relied on G.A.P. standards when we purchase meat. I know how important that is to me, and I’m honored to be part of an animal welfare organization that will continue to raise the bar.”

The addition of David and Cheryl as board members will provide insight into key areas for G.A.P. in the upcoming years as we work to deepen our efforts with foodservice partners, continue our Better Chicken Project, and work to make G.A.P. the most trusted and valued farm animal welfare certification program in North America.

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Compass is agreeing to ensure certification under G.A.P.’s 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating program for all broiler chickens as a buying requirement across 100 percent of their business by 2024. Key areas of the standard will include:

• using approved genetic strains and meeting criteria for any new strains, to be assessed
• enrichments including hay bales, perches, and natural light,
• and minimum space requirements (6lbs/square foot).

Compass has also agreed to require, by 2024, that all broilers in its supply chain be rendered unconscious prior to shackling using a method of Controlled Atmosphere Killing. Compass will also annually benchmark its progress, and publically report performance.

Rick Post, COO Compass Group USA, said, “This partnership underscores our Envision 2020 principles and creates positive impact for people, animals and the planet while balancing social, environmental and ethical responsibility with commercial success. Very simply, it’s just the right thing to do.”

Anne Malleau, Executive Director of G.A.P. said: “We are very proud to have this historic first-ever partnership with a food service company. We are committed to supporting Compass in this transition by providing training material, assistance, and benchmarking to help them reach their goals by 2024. It represents an extraordinary agreement.”

“We are honored to be the first food service company to pilot a project of this magnitude with G.A.P., whose integrity and leadership set the highest ethical standards for certification of farm animal welfare,” said Gary Snyder, Chief People Officer Compass Group North America and who oversees the company’s farm animal welfare policies.

G.A.P. announced in March 2016 that they would create a new standard of approved strains of chickens with better welfare outcomes, including healthier breeds, by 2024. The standard also gives birds natural light, more space and enrichments to encourage natural behavior and better health. Whole Foods Market simultaneously agreed to adhere to this standard.

In the United States, 95% of all factory farmed animals are chickens raised for meat, known as broilers. Currently the majority of these are broilers are from strains that grow so large, so fast they can have difficulty walking, and suffer from heart attacks and other significant health issues. This agreement not only phases out unhealthy strains of birds, but also commits to improving their living conditions by creating standards for space, enrichment and natural light – all of which encourage natural behaviors and better health. The agreement also means a transformation in the way in which chickens are slaughtered, requiring they be rendered insensible before they are shackled upside down at slaughter.

The agreement is supported by Compassion in World Farming and the Humane Society of the United States, both of which are on the board of G.A.P. and work in partnership with Compass Group.

Leah Garces, US Executive Director of Compassion in World Farming and G.A.P. Board member said: “We applaud this historic announcement. When Compass, the largest food service company in the world, says enough is enough, chickens need a better life, we know we are at a tipping point. An avalanche is coming towards the chicken industry which they cannot afford to ignore.”

Josh Balk, VP of Farm Animal Protection for The Humane Society of the U.S. said: “Compass Group has been a leader on animal welfare for years, particularly getting pigs out of gestation crates and egg-laying hens out of cages. This natural next step in its animal welfare program will ensure a better life for broiler chickens, and we’re optimistic the rest of the food industry will follow its lead.”

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So what’s next? Early 2017, we’ll be releasing version 3 of the meat chicken standard, which will go into effect later in the year. There will be several updates to the standard incorporating all the feedback we received through our multi-stakeholder process, including, but not limited to:

• Increasing the light intensity at Step 1 to be at least 50 lux for at least eight hours during the day, with at least six hours of continuous darkness (
• Providing housed birds with access to natural light from G.A.P. 2 and higher through insulated windows or semi-transparent roofing placed evenly throughout barns/houses. (The combined area through which natural light enters must be at least 1% of the total floor space.)
• Clarifying the importance of good litter management to the birds’ environment for air quality, and in the reduction of skin related issues (foot pad dermatitis, hock burn, breast blisters etc.) with the addition of a minimum litter depth (3”) that covers the entire floor area of the barn, and that is maintained during the flock, and between flocks, with the removal of caked litter, and addition of fresh litter to ensure litter remains friable so that it can maintain it’s absorptive and dilutive properties, as well as be suitable for dust-bathing by the birds.
• Enhancing ‘outcome-based’ measurements, where we use bird measurements to tell us how the bird is doing under the management protocols used by the farm. The program already utilizes lameness assessments, and footpad scoring, and will add a soiled bird assessment (dirty feather assessment) twice a production cycle as an additional measure of litter condition (between days 15-20, and pre-slaughter). Auditors will also do a soiled bird assessment as a component of the audit. Additionally, auditors will take litter samples during the audit to assess litter moisture as we seek to better understand the relationship between litter quality, type, absorptive properties, temperature and relative humidity, and the impact on the birds.
• Adding requirements for slaughter, similar to what we’ve done for new species and to other revised standards.

Also in 2017, we’ll be taking the next big step in our slower growing broiler initiative with the funding of a study to evaluate the suitability of alternative breeds and strains of birds against our list of defined welfare criteria – the point of the study is to develop a science based, statistically relevant, objective way of evaluating suitability of different breeds with the aim of creating a list, by Step rating, for producers that explains which breeds/strains are acceptable. Stay tuned for more on this project, but we’re confident this study will prove an essential component of significantly improving the lives of millions of chickens.

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It’s important to know that “family farm” is not a predictor of size, but nor should it be – and that size is not a predictor of good animal welfare. From our experience, big isn’t always bad, and small isn’t always wonderful. Good animal welfare really comes down to how the animals are managed, their nutrition, and their environment – all things the 5-Step® program focuses on.

In its 5-Step® animal welfare standards for each animal in its program, G.A.P. defines “operation” as “a single farm or ranch with one or more locations where animals are raised under direct supervision.” You can find an example of this definition in our Turkey Standards. And as we require in each animal standard, every operation must be third-party audited every 15 months. When we start to look at the wide variety of farms, ranches, and business relationships that connect them, a single operation if often a small part in a larger farming system.

G.A.P. does get asked quite frequently if we have ‘family farms’ in the program, and the overwhelming majority are family owned or managed – some are independent, some are contract growers, and others have business relationships with companies that sell products from their animals to retailers and/or food manufactures.

G.A.P. is proud to work with farmers and ranchers who have taken the time to become 5-Step® certified, regardless of whether their operations are big, small, or somewhere in between.

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Dr. Temple Grandin began her journey towards improving animal welfare as a teenager while spending a summer on her Aunt’s cattle ranch. Grandin started to look at the world from an animal’s point of view – quite literally – by walking through her Aunt’s cattle handling facility and squeezing herself in the stock chute. Though not formally diagnosed until her forties, Temple’s autism allowed her a unique opportunity to understand animal behavior & emotion.

Grandin went on to use her exceptional insight into animal behavior to design corrals, alleyways, and chutes to help move cattle; these designs use an animal’s natural instincts to move through animal handling facilities in a calm, stress-free way.

Grandin’s work was first implemented in feedlots and slaughter plants, where many cattle are handled every day. She was later recruited by the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) to develop a welfare assessment for animals going to slaughter, and today, 95% of livestock are processed in plants using Grandin’s NAMI audit. Over the course of her career, Grandin’s achievements have extended far beyond the cattle industry. She has also been a key player in establishing low-stress handling techniques for pigs, sheep, horses, bison, deer, antelope, and poultry and is a spokesperson for autism awareness. She has written ten books on animals and autism and has authored on over 400 research articles. Grandin has also been honored in the media on numerous accounts, including being the subject of an HBO film and a TED talk speaker, making the TIME 100 list of most instrumental people, and appearing on The Today Show, Larry King Live, 48 Hours, 20/20, NPR, and the BBC.

So, on her 69th birthday, let’s celebrate Dr. Temple Grandin and all the work that she has done for both the autistic community and animal welfare. Hear, hear!

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G.A.P. wanted simple call-outs that captured the spirit of our multi-tiered 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Program and could be used across species AND Steps; otherwise it would be difficult to keep them all straight.

We are often asked why we use the term ‘Pasture Centered’ instead of ‘Pasture Raised’. G.A.P. uses ‘Pasture Centered’ because our standards allow for animals to be removed from pasture at certain times of the year when being on pasture would impact their health and welfare – think heavy snowfall for example. However, even though animals may be off pasture, they are still required to have continuous daily outdoor access (this might be a barn with a concrete outdoor pen).

As part of our internal discussions at the time, it was felt if we used ‘Pasture Raised’ that gave the impression that animals were always on pasture, whereas ‘Pasture Centered’ better describes farms that keep animals on pasture as much as possible. One could argue this is semantics, but because G.A.P. felt ‘Pasture Centered’ was the most honest description of our farms, we have stood by it over the years.

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Scott and his team regularly travel the globe in search of the latest technology. In 2011, Bell & Evans launched slow induction anesthesia (SIA), dramatically reducing animal stress. Last week, G.A.P. hit the road to visit their new state-of-the-art further processing facility in Lebanon County, PA, and now that the plant is up and running, we asked them what projects were next on their list.

The most exciting project they told us about was their plan to open a revolutionary new hatchery later this year in Fredericksburg, PA. The new hatchery will be completed in collaboration with Hatchtech and Viscon of the Netherlands, and will be the first of its kind in the US. The new hatchery will provide fresh food, water, and air to chicks as soon as they hatch; and starting on day one, improvements in incubation, brooding, and transport technology will improve chick immunity, development, and overall health. Similar systems implemented in Europe and Canada has proved to provide even more benefits to animal welfare than was expected. Watch the video below to learn more about Time Lapse Hatching!

Bell & Evans has been a great partner with Global Animal Partnership and the 5-Step® Animal Welfare Rating Program. We look forward to see what other innovative projects Bell & Evans will be introducing in the years to come!

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Well, contrary to popular belief, bison and buffalo are two different beasties! When 17th century French explorers arrived in North America, they referred to bison as “les boefs” meaning oxen. When the English arrived a little later, they changed the pronunciation to “la buff” which then got distorted to “buffle”, “buffler”, “buffillo”, “bufello”. Eventually the name evolved to “buffalo” – identical to an already coined name for another bovine species in Asia and Africa – and it stuck!

While bison and buffalo belong to the same family, they are actually two different species – here are some of the differences:

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In March 2016, G.A.P. announced its intention over the next eight years to replace fast-growing chicken breeds with slower-growing breeds within its 5-Step® Animal Welfare Rating Program, and Whole Foods Market pledged to support the initiative.

“Whole Foods Market is proud to share this award with Global Animal Partnership, in recognition of our joint commitment to improving farm animal welfare,” said Theo Weening, global meat buyer for Whole Foods Market. “We’ve been committed to improving quality standards for meat since we opened our first meat counter in 1981. We were the first national grocer to use the 5-Step Animal Welfare Program in 2011 and are proud to get behind their effort to raise the bar on chicken welfare standards.”

“G.A.P. chicken farmers have pioneered animal welfare in North America,” said Anne Malleau, executive director for Global Animal Partnership. “By addressing fast growth in chickens, we will be getting to the root of the welfare problem facing chickens today.”

“This joint commitment paves the way for major change to the world’s biggest broiler chicken producer: the US chicken industry,” said Rachel Dreskin, CIFW food business manager. “This is the first major, specific, time-bound commitment to address the issue in the United States.” More than 600 chicken farms currently use the G.A.P. standard, affecting the lives of 277 million chickens annually and making it the most significant higher welfare farm animal standard in the United States.

As a major retailer featuring meat certified in G.A.P.’s 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating Program, the support and commitment of Whole Foods Market was crucial in enabling G.A.P.’s pledge.

CIFW recognized Whole Foods Market in 2015 with a Good Sow Commendation and a Global Good Egg Award for the company’s animal welfare practices. Compassion in World Farming uses its Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards to recognize market-leading companies for their current policies or commitments, which result in positive impacts on farm animal welfare.

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