ANIMAL WELFARE APPROVED
What does 'Animal Welfare Approved' mean?
The Animal Welfare Approved food label (AWA), certified through A Greener World, is a food label intended to give the consumer a sense of the basic welfare standard provided to the farm animals used in food production (All ecolabels | Ecolabel Index, n.d.). According to A Greener World, the accreditation standards for AWA were developed utilizing the expertise of international scientists, veterinarians, researchers and farmers (A Greener World, n.d.). A Greener World claims that their standards are achievable for most farms and reflect ‘best practices’ in farm animal welfare (A Greener World, n.d.).
The standards of AWA aim to ensure that farm animals are physically and psychologically healthy, are not subject to painful procedures, are protected from extreme weather and predators, are pasture raised and not subjected to close confinement (Consumer Reports, n.d.). A key concept behind this certification is that the animals be able to engage in natural behaviors (A Greener World, n.d.).
Farmers participating in this program must undergo at least one site inspection per year (farm audit) from A Greener World staff to confirm compliance with the accreditation standards (A Greener World, n.d.). These standards are intended to apply from the birth of the animal until slaughter (A Greener World, n.d.).
One of the limitations of AWA is that it is only applied to commonly domesticated species, or exotic species only if they are indigenous to the country where they are being produced, leaving a potential gap in oversight for species such as llamas and alpacas raised in the US.
