In my on-going quest to eat healthier, I decided to take my entire paycheck and head back to Whole Foods. As soon as the sliding glass doors open, I am transported from the dark parking garage into a bountiful farmers market.  To my right are galvanized metal containers over-flowing with some of my favorite fresh cut flowers…sunflowers, tulips, iris, peonies, hydrangea…To my left is the strategically placed coffee bar that is wafting in the uplifting and invigorating smells of Columbian deliciousness…And in front of me are rainbows of organic fruit and vegetable pyramid displays so meticulously arranged that even the ancient Egyptians would be impressed. I immediately feel transformed, more positive and even healthier.
After I loaded up the cart with my weekly harvest, I made my way back to the meat department. As I started to comb through the pre-packaged, cellophane wrapped, chicken breasts and pork chops, I notice that all of the packages were marked with a number, ranging from 1 to 5+. As the numbers went up, so did the price per pound…exponentially! What does that mean? I didn’t see any difference in the packaging or the description (aside from the price), and I was too embarrassed to ask anyone in fear of looking like a rookie. My fellow shoppers just grabbed and went, clearly knowing the system. I finally found a poster that had descriptions for each number, Step 1: No Cages, No Crates, No Crowding;  Step 2: Enriched Environment…as I read on I was starting to feel uncomfortable…Step 3: Enhanced Outdoor Access; Step 4: Pasture Centered; Step 5 Animal Centered, No Physical Alterations; Step 5+ Animal Centered, Entire Life on Same Farm. I quickly learned that the numbers on the package refer to a third-party animal welfare rating system that Whole Foods supports.
As I stand there, I am forced to decide how much I am willing to pay for the lifestyle of the animal that I am looking to eat for dinner. All I was looking for was a couple of great steaks, not a moral dilemma.  It was way too much to process. Up until this point in my life, I have been able to separate my feelings about animals and the food on my plate. I never look at a pig and think about a delicious pulled pork sandwich (although bacon always comes to mind, but I think pigs might even like bacon), nor do I look at a package of ribs and think about whose baby’s back this used to be. I was completely taken out of my feel-good, health-conscious trance and now thinking of herds of cattle being funneled into a barn, and hundreds of chickens running around in a confined space. This was an organic buzzkill. I left the store with just the flowers and produce and feeling kind of conflicted.
On my ride home I decided I would just become a vegetarian. While onions make me cry, my tears are not from sadness, as I know that no onion was hurt or treated poorly in the making of my sauce. But I knew becoming a vegetarian was unrealistic for the long term. First off, tofu skives me out, and secondly, I remembered the time when I tried it a few years back. It only lasted about 2 days before I lost all feeling in the back of my legs…that was until I sat down, then they just felt like they were on fire. As soon as I had a hamburger I was cured. So clearly that won’t work. By the time I got home, I just decided that I didn’t have enough information to make a decision about how I should feel about this. As soon as I walked in the door I fired up my computer and started reading.
I was happy to see that there are minimum standards for all meat sold at Whole Foods, before the rating system even enters the picture. No added hormones, no antibiotics (ever), minimum requirements for physical safety and health of the animals (non-slip flooring and ramps to reduce the risk of injury), and rigorous processing standards to ensure no suffering of the animals (100% animals unconscious before…well, you know). As I read on, I started to feel so much better about this. Admittedly, I never considered the animals in the food process. I guess I assumed (hoped) that the animals were treated well, no standards necessary, that it was just a given. But as I read through the pages, I saw that that was not the case. I have already mentally committed to only buying organic from now on, but I am still not convinced that I need to pay up for a 3 or a 5+ rating.
After a few more clicks on my keyboard, I am brought to the 5-Step Animal Welfare Rating system page on the Global Animal Partnership’s website. Their system takes a more holistic view on the quality of life when establishing their standards for farm animal welfare. They consider things like Natural Living, Good Health and Positive Experience (I am pretty sure there is a similar poster in my office that our HR department put together).  While it all sounds great, it’s still a little too abstract for me – I am in finance not a farmhand. After some more clicking, I finally found a matrix that shows the differences, by rating, for each animal type.
I was happy to read that bedding for pigs was a standard feature across the board. Makes sense to me…who doesn’t like a pig-in-a blanket? But as I move up the rating ladder, the decisions get harder. Do I want my beef to have had access to grooming supplies, or am I OK if it looks like it just rolled out of the barn? Have? OK, then I’ll need a #2. How strongly do I feel about my boiler chicken having access to toys? Not sure about that one. If it has too many, will it taste gamey?  Am I willing to pay more to keep a litter of pigs together for their whole lives? I think this should be left up to the pig…family dynamics can get tricky. And how important is it to me that the cow lived on the same farm its whole life? I know I moved around a couple of times when I was a kid, which made me tougher, but I’m not sure I want that for my steak. I guess I’ll need to look for a #5+ at the butcher counter.
After going through the mental gymnastics, I decided that for me it’s going to come down to price and impulsivity. There will be times when I just want to have a juicy steak cooked on the BBQ, and I could justify paying $15+ a pound. But there will be other times (most times) when a #1 will have to do and it will be just fine. I fully support the fact that companies like Whole Foods are focused on the welfare of the animals, and that they have set such high standards (over and above what is required) even before the meat ever makes it into their stores. But, since the standards for a #1 are already very high, I’m not going to feel pressured to buy up just so my pork chop could have a spring fed watering hole during its life on the pasture, or so that my steak could have lived in an environment where it felt comfortable naturally expressing itself. Heck, I’m 43 and I don’t have a pool in my backyard, and I am still sometimes uncomfortable showing my true colors even with my own family (but that’s for another blog post).
So there you have it, moral dilemma solved…Mooo-ving on.