{"id":2100,"date":"2023-09-16T04:33:59","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T04:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/what-does-it-take-for-a-cheese-to-be-animal-welfare-certified\/"},"modified":"2023-09-16T04:33:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-16T04:33:59","slug":"what-does-it-take-for-a-cheese-to-be-animal-welfare-certified","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/what-does-it-take-for-a-cheese-to-be-animal-welfare-certified\/","title":{"rendered":"What Does It Take for a Cheese to be Animal Welfare Certified?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cheese, especially that made by large commercial creameries, is not immune to the inhumane factory farming practices more commonly associated with egg and meat production. Like their slaughterhouse-destined counterparts, dairy goats<\/a>, sheep <\/a>and cows<\/a> can suffer extreme stress due to overcrowding and restrictive housing, the inability to express natural behaviors, mutilation and a poor diet. But as awareness of animal welfare grows not just among consumers but within the dairy industry, more and more creameries are obtaining certifications that prove their cheese has been produced with the animals\u2019 interests at heart.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Animal Welfare Certifications<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Animal welfare certifications are the primary indicator that a dairy or creamery treats their animals humanely. There are three primary designations: Animal Welfare Approved<\/a> (AWA) by A Greener World, Animal Welfare Certified<\/a> by the Global Animal Partnership and Certified Humane<\/a> by Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC). To earn any of them, an operation must guarantee that their animals are not confined to crates or cages, that they have access to the outdoors and that they are provided with opportunities for enrichment and the expression of natural behaviors.<\/p>\n

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goats in pasture photo courtesy of Prairie Fruits Farm<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Animal Welfare Approved from A Greener World is arguably the most rigorous of the certifications, and one that Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery<\/a> in Champaign, IL has held since 2010. \u201cThe main requirements are that our goats have continuous access to pasture, that over 70% of their diet comes from forage and that we provide a living environment that allows our goats to express their natural behaviors like climbing structures and places for different groups to hang out together,\u201d explains Prairie Fruits co-owner Leslie Cooperband. <\/p>\n

At the farm, Cooperbrand uses a silvopasture grazing system that regularly rotates the herd between pastures that are rich in shade trees and herbaceous plants. The practice isn\u2019t just good for the goats, it\u2019s good for the cheese they produce. \u201cBecause of the diversity of diet in such a system, there are more complex flavor compounds in the milk,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

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Cracked Pepper Ch\u00e8vre Frais courtesy Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Certified Humane\u2019s requirements are similar but slightly less stringent: dairy animals don\u2019t have to spend their entire lives at a sustainable, independent farm at which they are primarily raised outdoors. The Animal Welfare Certification by Global Animal Partnership, by contrast, identifies a dairy or creamery\u2019s animal welfare according to a five step system. The higher the step they\u2019ve reached, the more humane their practices. Those with a Step 5 certification do not use crates or feedlots and do not overcrowd or physically alter their animals. Step 5 recipients also provide their animals with enhanced outdoor access and a lifetime of security on just one farm. <\/p>\n

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\u00a0The Impact of Animal Welfare Certification<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Earning an animal welfare certification is an involved process that applies not just to the care of the animals but to their management. Third-party audits are conducted annually to assure that certified operations are keeping their promises.<\/p>\n

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Redwood Hill Farms goats photo courtesy of Redwood Hill.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although the goats at Redwood Hill Farm<\/a> in Sebastopol, CA had been raised humanely for close to 40 years, they weren\u2019t awarded their Certified Humane status until 2005 – the first goat dairy in the United States to earn it. But feeding a herd a nutritious diet free of antibiotics and hormones, providing them with adequate shelter against the weather and using low-stress techniques for tasks like milking and clipping are just some of the benchmarks animal welfare organizations want to see. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest area of change was the additional record keeping,\u201d says Seaire Lorentz, brand manager at Redwood Hill Farms. \u201cMaintaining Certified Humane status is an ongoing commitment that requires rather extensive documentation and annual inspection by the HFAC.\u201d <\/p>\n

Due to those administrative and maintenance requirements, small family-owned dairies don\u2019t always have the resources to complete an animal welfare certification, even if their husbandry practices meet its standards. To give them a fair shot, Redwood Hill shepherds their smaller partner operations through the process. \u201dWe\u2019ve found that it\u2019s essential to provide support to our partners so that they can succeed in obtaining and maintaining their certifications,\u201d continues Lorentz.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite the challenges in acquiring it, animal welfare certification can raise the visibility of small, family-owned dairies and creameries and the cheese they sell. \u201cBeing certified Animal Welfare Approved gives us an opportunity to market our goat dairy products to folks who care about where their food comes from and how animals are raised,\u201d explains Cooperband. <\/p>\n

Both Prairie Fruits and Redwood Hill also see their certification as a way to educate the public. \u201cEach company that adds the Certified Humane mark onto their products is helping to raise consumers\u2019 awareness about animal welfare and how it relates to their food,\u201d says Lorentz. And the more dairies and creameries that earn an animal welfare certification, the more competitive pressure other dairies and creameries will feel to follow the same path.<\/p>\n

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Goats at Surfing Goat Dairy photo credit Amy Sherman<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Finding Animal Welfare Certified Cheese Producers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

More than 20 cheese producers<\/a> in the United States, including Prairie Fruit Farms & Creamery are now Animal Welfare Approved, Animal Welfare Certified or Certified Humane. Others include Surfing Goat Dairy<\/a> in Hawaii, Shelburne Farms<\/a> in Vermont and Green Dirt Farms<\/a> in Missouri. As consumers learn more about the importance of animal welfare and the impact of humane practices on the quality of dairy products, more are likely to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing good stewards of the land and animals is something my parents instilled in me when they first founded Redwood Hill Farm 53 years ago,\u201d says owner Jennifer Bice. \u201cI\u2019m proud to continue their legacy of guaranteeing the health, happiness and ethical treatment of all the animals that supply milk for our products.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cheese, especially that made by large commercial creameries, is not immune to the inhumane factory farming practices more commonly associated with egg and meat production. Like their slaughterhouse-destined counterparts, dairy goats, sheep and cows can suffer extreme stress due to overcrowding and restrictive housing, the inability to express natural behaviors, mutilation and a poor diet. … Okumaya devam et “What Does It Take for a Cheese to be Animal Welfare Certified?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-milk-and-diary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sutyo.com\/tr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}