Organic Meat and “Humane Treatment” of Animals

For some consumers, their first and foremost concern at the check-out counter is that the animal products they are purchasing are healthy for them. However, for others, before they fork out the cash, they want to on what and how the animal was raised.

There is a misconception that “organic” implies a more humane treatment of the animal itself. The endorsement of the Organic USDA label by The National Organic Program (NOP), only guarantees the consumer  on what not the how an animal was raised.  Furthermore, substantive text addressing the humane treatment of animals stated in the Animal Welfare Act , 7 U.S.C. §§ 2131 et. seq. (AWA) does not cover animals that are raised for food (www.nal.usda.gov).

Nor does the NOP standard cover how animals are transported or slaughtered. Organic cows can remain up to 28 hours in the transport vehicle without access to food or water. Animals transported in trucks were exempt as trucks were not defined as being a “vehicle”.  Therefore, the Twenty-Eight Hour Law did not apply to the 95% of the 10 billion animals transported by trucks for slaughter every year in the United States (www.nationalaglawcenter.org). In 2006 animal rights activist won a major victory in closing this glaring loophole (www.nationalaglawcenter.org).

During the course of my research, I found out some disturbing and gruesome facts relating to the slaughter of animals in keeping with Kosher and Halal dietary laws (http://news.bbc.co.uk). In the United States, the ritual slaughter of animals is exempt from the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act of 1978 (http://www.grandin.com/references/humane.slaughter). I used to purchase Kosher meat because I thought the animals suffered less. Well, now, I know.

 Humane Farm Animal Care is a non-profit organization. The organizations major tenets are that animals are able to engage in natural behavior, they have sufficient space, shelter access to fresh water and that animals are raised without antibiotics or hormones (www.certifiedhumane.com). Make sure that when you are paying extra for meat that received "Humane Treatment" the label is clearly visible. As this in not a USDA certification, there is a lot of room for "cheaters" to wiggle in.

Some factory farms have agreed to third party audits by organizations such as Humane Animal Care and other such organizations. Although legislation is in the pipeline, to date the USDA does not have a certification for the humane treatment of farm animals. Aside from the rarely enforced Twenty-eight Hour law, animals are S.O.L. once they are transported.