[T]he American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and a partner have awarded $10,000 in grants this year to Vermont projects on farms following humane certification guidelines.
Wandering Roots farm in Jeffersonville received $2,500 for a project that will help the farm become certified humane. Health Hero Farm in South Hero, Big Picture Farm in Townshend, Blue Ledge Farm in Salisbury, Cloverworks Farm in Irasburg, Longest Acres Farm in Chelsea, Scuttleship Farm in Panton and Ice House Farm in Goshen together received $5,000 to carry out a direct-marketing campaign in Vermont.
And Meadowdale Farm in Putney received $2,500 to install frost-free water hydrants for its pastures. The farm, which produces meat, eggs, hay, maple syrup and forest products, will use the $2,500 to dig trenches and lay water pipe out to the cow pastures, said co-owner Katie Graves. Until now, the family has been trucking the water.
“Right now when our cows need water, we have to fill up 200-gallon tank and drive it over the field to their water, which is terrible for soil compaction and it makes us have to rely on a tractor and fuel,” Graves said. “This will make our job as farmers more efficient, less labor-intensive, easier and much more effective.”
The ASPCA underwrites the grants through its work with a Chicago group called Food Animal Concerns Trust, or FACT, a national nonprofit that promotes the safe and humane production of meat, milk and eggs.
The average amount of the FACT grants, which are awarded throughout the United States, is $2,500, the ASPCA said in a prepared statement. Vermont farmers received grants through the program in 2017 and 2019, said Kara Shannon, senior manager of farm animal welfare at the New York-based nonprofit.
A bill making its way through the Vermont Legislature includes a section that enables funding for independent animal welfare certification programs through the existing Working Lands grant program. S.160, which was introduced by the Senate Agriculture Committee, is now before the House Agriculture and Forestry Committee.
Many independent animal welfare certifications have been developed over the years. They cover various areas of farm animal life, including breeding, housing, pasture access, transport and slaughter. The U.S. Department of Agriculture lists eight such certifications on its website.
Graves said many of the animal welfare certification standards are so lenient that she considers them “greenwashing,” or marketing ploys that mean little.
It’s kind of like what happened to the organic label in the 1990s,” said Graves. “It became less about sequestering carbon and improving soil quality, two things that are super important to our farm, and it became about being able to pay certifiers to come to your farm. She noted Applegate Farm, owned by the $4.6 billion Hormel Foods Corp., has a humane certification on its organic turkey even though the turkey are not pastured.
“It’s a marketing tool that I often think it leads consumers to a false sense of security with their food choices,” she said.
Shannon said that the ASPCA considers welfare certifications meaningful the standards are high enough to address animals’ physical, emotional and natural needs, and strong oversight to ensure farms are meeting the standards. The ASPCA focuses on three such certifications for consumers and farmers: Certified Humane, Animal Welfare Approved, and Global Animal Partnership.
The three programs have “comprehensive, on-farm welfare standards developed by scientists and veterinarians; they ban worst practices, including caging and crowding; all require enriched environments that encourage natural behaviors; and all require independent audits of farms for 100% compliance with standards that are available online for consumer transparency,” she said.
The ASPCA said the demand for humane-certified food is growing, and that Middlebury College, the University of Vermont Medical Center, Northern Vermont University-Lyndon, Sterling College and Black River Meats have made a commitment to buying from welfare-certified producers.
