{"id":2268,"date":"2018-10-10T21:07:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=2268"},"modified":"2022-11-04T21:18:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T21:18:20","slug":"villanova-university-raises-the-bar-with-certified-pasture-raised-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/villanova-university-raises-the-bar-with-certified-pasture-raised-eggs\/","title":{"rendered":"Villanova University Raises the Bar with Certified Pasture Raised Eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"\t<section class=\"normal_content bg-white padding-top-small padding-bottom-large\" style=\"\">\n\t\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"row center-md\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"col-md-7\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"content-styled\"><p>We\u2019re excited to welcome\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www1.villanova.edu\/villanova\/media\/pressreleases\/2018\/0906.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Villanova University<\/a>\u00a0to Farm Forward\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/what-we-do\/consulting\/leadership-circle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leadership Circle<\/a>. Villanova Dining Services has committed to source 100% of its eggs from sources that, at a minimum, meet Certified Humane (CH) cage-free standards. After conversations with our staff, Villanova started sourcing all of their\u00a0<em>shell eggs<\/em>\u00a0from a CH Pasture Raised egg supplier, Vital Farms. Villanova is the first university of its size to source all shell eggs from hens raised in certified pasture-based systems, a decision that raises the bar for institutional food procurement commitments across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Pasture-raised eggs are a significant step up from cage-free eggs when it comes to animal welfare (and, research suggests, the nutritional profile of the end product<a class='endnote' href='#endnote1'>1<\/a> as well). While cage-free eggs can still come from farms where birds never see the outdoors, pasture-raised hens spend most of their time outside, exhibiting natural behaviors (like foraging for bugs and insects) with plenty of space. Villanova\u2019s support for a pasture-raised egg company may also have ripple effects for other food buyers: by convincing their food distributor to carry new pasture-raised egg products, Villanova is paving the way to making pasture-raised products available to other institutions and large buyers.<\/p>\n<p>Villanova\u2019s membership in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/what-we-do\/consulting\/leadership-circle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leadership Circle<\/a>\u00a0aligns well with the university\u2019s \u201cVEG\u201d program, which promotes healthy and sustainable eating. By offering delicious plant-forward menu options, the VEG program has led to an increase in produce purchases and has increased student satisfaction with on-campus dining. Joining the Leadership Circle and committing to purchase certified higher welfare eggs will help Villanova focus on sourcing \u201cless and better\u201d\u00a0animal products.<\/p>\n<p>Our team looks forward to working with Villanova and supporting other universities that wish to build a higher welfare, more sustainable food system through their food purchasing practices. Please\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:leadershipcircle@farmfoward.com\">reach out<\/a>\u00a0if you\u2019d like to learn more, or are interested in joining our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/what-we-do\/consulting\/leadership-circle\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Leadership Circle<\/a>\u00a0program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More institutions are taking advantage of the benefits of the Leadership Circle, like Villanova University. Learn more here. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,20,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-policy","category-animal-welfare","category-food-system-solutions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}