Celebrate 2019’s Biggest Wins for Farm Animals

We want to thank advocates like you for shopping with your heart for more humanely produced food, calling on lawmakers to pass stronger laws for farm animals, and supporting our work to build a more responsible food system at every level. This year, your efforts helped us make exciting changes to improve the lives of pigs, chickens, cows and other farm animals across the country. 

Here are some of the highlights of what we’ve accomplished together in 2019:

  • We celebrated over 23 companies’ new commitments to earn a meaningful animal welfare certification, with many planning to address multiple farm animal species. These companies included meal- and meat-delivery companies, popular restaurant chains, a vending machine company with over 250 locations, and health-focused brands. We’re especially happy that 14 of these companies have committed to eliminating some of the worst abuses of broiler chickens [PDF].
  • We formed a partnership with Whole30 Approved® to incorporate a new and progressive animal welfare policy for all of its products, which will ensure meaningful animal welfare standards for more than 60 brands that use animal ingredients. 
  • We welcomed 18 widely available food brands—including the first-ever welfare-certified baby food—to the distinguished Shop With Your Heart Brand List, working closely with many of the companies to help them achieve the necessary certification and labeling. In total, more than 90 welfare-certified products have been added to our Brand List over the past three years.
  • We supported campaigns that led the Austin Independent School District, Cincinnati Public Schools and the City of Boston to adopt the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP), whose animal welfare standards were drafted with help from the ASPCA. This brings the total number of GFPP commitments to 12.
  • Consumers’ determination to buy more humanely produced food only grew in 2019, aided by Shop With Your Heart resources. We launched the ShopKind Helpline, a unique mobile texting service that connects people with ASPCA experts to answer questions about food labels and how to find more humane food. Thousands of shoppers are using this service to make more informed and empowered food choices.
  • Traffic to our Brand List more than tripled in 2019. When surveyed, nearly 80% of ASPCA supporters said that they now look for welfare-certified meat, eggs and dairy, and 80% said they had reduced animal-product consumption thanks to Shop With Your Heart resources. 
  • We assisted farmers seeking alternative ways of raising animals, working in the Vermont Legislature to pass a groundbreaking law that makes funding available to farmers pursuing welfare certification. We also underwrote part of FACT’s Fund-A-Farmer program for the fourth year, helping farmers attain welfare certification and build their capacity. Further, we unveiled an updated edition of our Farm Animal Welfare Certification Guide, which includes a new section outlining funding sources for farmers.
  • We defended against threats to farm animals—from a dangerous proposal to increase the speed of pig slaughter to misleading “right to farm” laws cropping up around the country—and educated the public about efforts by Big Ag to restrict plant-based alternatives to factory farmed products.

We are truly proud of these successes that mean better lives for hundreds of millions of farm animals and bring farmers, advocates and consumers into this powerful movement. Sign up to Shop With Your Heart to help us make even more progress for farm animals in 2020! We wish you a happy, healthy and humane New Year.

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