Alexandria, VA—The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC), a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of farm animals by certifying their humane treatment, the use of the certification mark, “Certified Humane.” Adele Douglass, executive director of HFAC, told WholeFoods that Certified Humane has been closely associated with HFAC for many years, but this formalizes that connection and makes it illegal for generic use of the term, thereby protecting the certification’s high standards. “The public wants a label they can trust,” continues Douglass. “With over 30 humane organizations endorsing our program, they know the standards are humane and with our rigorous inspection program, they know they can trust our label.”

Consumers can now see the Certified Humane logo on a wide variety of meat, poultry, dairy and egg products nationally, in natural and mainstream stores. “When I created this program,” says Douglass, “it was with the idea that consumers can improve the lives of farm animals through the marketplace and we certainly have proved this. Our first year, there were 143,000 animals raised under our standards, and in 2009, there were over 25 million animals raised under our standards. Consumers are demanding the Certified Humane Raised and Handled logo on packages and farmers are changing their practices to meet our standards, which improves the lives of those animals.”

The Animal Care Standards were developed by national and international animal scientists and farm-animal welfare experts.

Published in WholeFoods Magazine, Feb. 2010