{"id":1,"date":"2022-03-29T15:36:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T15:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=1"},"modified":"2022-11-22T01:56:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T01:56:26","slug":"whole-foods-better-chicken-isnt-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/whole-foods-better-chicken-isnt-what-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Whole Foods\u2019 \u201cBetter Chicken\u201d Isn\u2019t What You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Who could argue with scientifically informed efforts to raise chickens with less suffering? Isn\u2019t less suffering better? And isn\u2019t better, well,\u00a0better<\/em>? The nation\u2019s leading animal welfare certification, Global Animal Partnership (GAP), has made news recently by\u00a0teaming up with animal welfare groups and large food retailers<\/a> like Whole Foods Market to set genuinely better standards on chicken welfare. The new standards are said to be based on a multi-year study GAP commissioned from the University of Guelph. GAP and its allies have even focused on the most challenging welfare problem in farming today: the chronic disease and deformities faced by virtually all chickens because they have been genetically modified to grow fatter, faster than ever before. Aggressive hybrid breeding techniques<\/a> over decades have transformed the chicken genome in disturbing ways, so it\u2019s a good thing institutions like GAP are talking about this public secret.<\/p>\n

But while some animal protection groups are celebrating GAP\u2019s new standards alongside industry, those of us who have seen \u201chow the standards were made\u201d aren\u2019t smiling. When is better not better at all? When the process of creating slightly improved standards is carefully controlled from soup to nuts to ensure that factory farming continues to be a thriving and globally expanding industry.<\/p>\n

GAP\u2019s \u201cbetter chicken\u201d is a pawn sacrifice. What has in fact occurred is that after\u00a0decades of runaway genetic modification<\/a>\u00a0that have left virtually all of America\u2019s chickens sickly and morbidly obese, the industry is asking the public to accept as \u201chigh welfare\u201d these genetically miserable birds because they aren\u2019t as bad as the newest and most widely used strains.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you are suffering from chronic pain and you go to your doctor. You are really suffering, so any relief would be welcome, even if it\u2019s modest. Your doctor gives you a medicine that makes you feel 10% better, and you are appreciative. But what if you found out the next day that the \u201cmedicine\u201d that is reducing your pain also has addictive properties that ensure that your painful condition will continue forever? And what if you further learn that a\u00a0complete<\/em>\u00a0cure was available for a few dollars more, but was deliberately hidden from you? That\u2019s how I and others feel about the GAP standards (but, yes, they are better).<\/p>\n

What the business interests that really control GAP have achieved with GAP\u2019s new genetic welfare standards is a benchmark for \u201cbetter\u201d that is so low that even factory farms can embrace it\u2014a standard for improvement that is so low, it ensures no real change will occur. Shoppers that can pay a premium get a product that is \u201cbetter,\u201d and all of us are worse off together.<\/p>\n

As a new father, I feel especially passionate about the harm this\u00a0humanewashing<\/a>\u00a0is doing. I believe it is preventing a better future from taking root. The product being washed clean here is perhaps the largest lever the American public has to address the future of infectious disease, pandemic risk, climate change, environmental racism, animal suffering, and more.<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing global growth of industrial farming, I have hope for my son\u2019s generation because I see the signs all around me that the\u00a0public is waking up to the reality of factory farming<\/a>. The material conditions sometimes continue to worsen, but there is more will than ever to build a better, more sustainable future for farming. Change is coming. While no one really knows just how much an increasingly food-conscious public will demand, businesses are already bracing to deliver more. The plant-based and cultured meats that have made headlines since at least 2019 when Beyond Meat became the most successful IPO since 2008 are merely the most visible\u2014and may not be among the more important\u2014of these deep changes.<\/p>\n

My hope for the future is not in these technologies as much as the ambition to create a more humane and sustainable future that is mixed up with them. My hope is most importantly in the hearts and minds of Americans as they farm, buy, and eat their way into the future of food.<\/p>\n

It is precisely this source of hope that humanewashing seeks to attack. Humanewashing isn\u2019t only consumer deception; it\u2019s yet another attack on our better natures. Wanting to be humane is a core part of our humanity. To accept humanewashing, or to shrug it off as a necessary evil, may take more from us than we bargain.<\/p>\n

Most Americans remain in the dark about how disastrous animal agriculture has become, and industry knows it needs to change minds fast before a tipping point of awareness is reached. Big Chicken is looking at what happened to Big Tobacco and realizing the case against industrial poultry, especially in an age of pandemics, could be far worse. As the public will to end factory farming is built, industry is proactively defending itself, and humanewashing is a linchpin of their strategy.<\/p>\n

It is in this historical context that weak welfare standards like GAP\u2019s are the perfect smoke screen for industry. Whole Foods Market, GAP, and others are blowing that smoke straight up consumers\u2019 arses.<\/p>\n

While GAP\u2019s stated goal of at least doing better does set them above industry certifications, the much-hailed study it commissioned was a farce\u2014a performance to justify with the veneer of science an already foreclosed decision to support the status quo. The scientists themselves are innocent. The answers the study provided are answers to the questions GAP asked, but, with few exceptions, GAP only asked questions that would help its industry allies frame as \u201chigher welfare\u201d the most recent genetic offerings from the cabal of genetics companies that control industrial chicken genetics, and thus, the poultry industry, globally.<\/p>\n

The truth is that GAP and Whole Foods have so far chosen not to require standards that would significantly improve welfare outcomes\u2014despite having the evidence from their own study that truly meaningful improvements are possible. It is for this reason that after serving on GAP\u2019s board of directors for a decade, Farm Forward resigned in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There was reason for hope when\u00a0GAP announced<\/a>\u00a0in 2016 that it would establish benchmarks for genetic health, but at the end of a years-long process we\u2019re right back where we started: with chickens who suffer from a range of painful afflictions as a result of their unhealthy genetics. There is not even a whiff of a plan to end this absurd and unsustainable situation, but meanwhile,\u00a0GAP is trumpeting<\/a>\u00a0that it is \u201creinvent[ing] the modern day broiler chicken.\u201d It wouldn\u2019t be the first time that \u201cnew and improved\u201d really means more of the same.<\/p>\n

Whole Foods Market and GAP\u2019s humanewashing is leading consumers to believe that they can purchase chickens from Whole Foods who do not suffer because they have been genetically modified for fast growth in ways that are known to produce leg deformities, muscle myopathies, and weakened immune systems. The reality is that chickens within GAP\u2019s program will still suffer in these same ways, just slightly less. By contrast, the factory farm corporations and the retailers that profit from their products are almost certainly earning much more, or at least deflecting criticisms that might have forced them to change. GAP\u2019s \u201cbetter chicken\u201d is better for business, but consumers, public health, the environment, and, of course, the chickens themselves are not necessarily better off when factory farmed products are viewed more favorably. Sometimes, promising to be better is really just the lie someone tells when they aren\u2019t yet ready for real change.<\/p>\n

Lead image credit:\u00a0We Animals Media<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\t

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March 29, 2022<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,25,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-product-labeling","category-genetic-modification","category-humanewashing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}