{"id":2760,"date":"2016-07-18T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-18T10:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=2760"},"modified":"2022-11-07T22:09:09","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T22:09:09","slug":"change-is-coming-revolutionary-animal-welfare-announcement-for-factory-farmed-chickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/change-is-coming-revolutionary-animal-welfare-announcement-for-factory-farmed-chickens\/","title":{"rendered":"Change is Coming: Revolutionary Animal Welfare Announcement for Factory Farmed Chickens<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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In an effort to increase transparency, Perdue Foods, one of the largest poultry producers in the U.S., has announced revolutionary animal welfare standards that will impact more than 600 million birds per year. Most importantly, this plan recognizes what Farm Forward has been saying for over a decade:\u00a0chicken genetics<\/a>\u00a0are the key to rebuilding a more humane and sustainable poultry industry. Their unprecedented Four-Part Plan is the most comprehensive animal welfare policy to date in industrial agriculture. Inspired by the \u201cFive Freedoms\u201d\u2014animal welfare standards defined by Farm Animal Welfare Council\u2014Perdue\u2019s plan addresses space requirements, natural light, and increased activity levels for chickens. It also acknowledges the necessity of\u00a0making farmers part of the solution<\/a>, an issue Farm Forward has championed for years.<\/p>\n

As the first national organization to focus on poultry genetics, Farm Forward has made genetically healthy birds a cornerstone of our work. We spearheaded the movement that led to\u00a0a recent historic announcement\u00a0<\/a>by the nation\u2019s leading farmed animal welfare certification, Global Animal Partnership (GAP), which has pledged to phase out by 2024 the fastest-growing strains of chickens currently accounting for more than 99 percent of chicken meat sold in the U.S. More than 600 chicken farms currently use the GAP standard, affecting the lives of 277 million chickens annually. This pledge also includes a commitment by Whole Foods Market to follow these new standards. Thanks to our perseverance, major companies like Perdue are now starting to listen. This new commitment by Perdue is so astonishing because it is poised to impact almost a billion chickens every year.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve also worked for years to increase the demand for higher welfare poultry products \u2014our tool\u00a0BuyingPoultry<\/a>\u00a0is the first authoritative rating system and database of poultry products and plant-based alternatives sold in the United States\u2014and are encouraged that one of the largest chicken producers in the country is finally talking about taking about moving in the direction that we have long advocated.<\/p>\n

The specifics and timelines surrounding Perdue\u2019s announcement are vague\u2014we know that\u00a0watchdog organizations<\/a>\u00a0are required to ensure that animal welfare is a true priority and not an empty claim to gain consumer loyalty\u2014but if Perdue does follow through on its plan to improve animal welfare standards and relationships with farmers, it will set a strong precedent that other food producers won\u2019t be able to ignore.<\/p>\n

When Farm Forward began talking about poultry genetics nearly ten years ago, we were on our own. Thanks to our dedication and hard work, massive companies like Perdue Foods and Whole Foods Market have now pledged to improve animal welfare through genetics. Change is coming.<\/p>\n

We can only continue this work with your<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0support. Please consider making a donation\u00a0<\/a>today or<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0join us\u00a0<\/a>to learn more about our work to end factory farming.<\/em><\/strong><\/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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July 18, 2016<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-genetic-modification","category-animal-welfare"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760","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=2760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}