Whole Foods Will Donate 5% of Sales 1/25/05 to Animal Welfare

[Guest guest]

How cool is this? Heard about it on Eric Marcus' podcast

(http://vegan.com/). I know I'll arrange to do my weekly shopping that

day.

 

Laura

 

--

 

Press Release Source: Whole Foods Market

 

Whole Foods Market Establishes Foundation to Help Achieve More

Compassionate Treatment of Farm Animals

Tuesday December 14, 3:47 pm ET

As Company Celebrates 25th Year, It Will Donate Five Percent of Total

Global Sales Tuesday, January 25 to Launch Animal Compassion

Foundation

 

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Whole Foods

Market®

(Nasdaq: WFMI - News), the world's leading natural and organic foods

supermarket founded in 1980, invites shoppers to visit its 166 stores

in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom on Tuesday,

January 25 as five percent of total company sales will be allocated to

create the Animal Compassion Foundation. As an independent, non-profit

organization with its own board of directors, the Foundation will

provide education and research services to assist and inspire ranchers

and meat producers around the world to achieve a higher standard of

animal welfare excellence while still maintaining economic viability.

 

 

" By creating the Foundation, Whole Foods Market is pioneering an

entirely new way for people to relate to farm animals -- with the

animals' welfare becoming the most important goal, " said John Mackey,

chairman, chief executive officer and co-founder of Whole Foods

Market. " There are many universities and organizations out there doing

research making production systems more productive and profitable, but

there is no one place where meat producers can go to learn about

making their processes more compassionate. We are out to change that

with this Foundation. "

 

The Animal Compassion Foundation will allow ranchers and producers the

opportunity to visit and learn from others who are innovating animal

husbandry techniques to create the ideal environments and conditions

to support every animal's physical needs, natural behaviors and

well-being. The Foundation's tasks will include:

 

1. Searching the planet for innovative animal compassionate ranchers

and

 

farmers whose methods can be studied.

 

2. Creating a worldwide network comprised of animal compassionate

 

ranchers and farmers to share knowledge to learn and improve

 

together.

 

3. Collecting and compiling the global knowledge of animal

compassionate

 

methods into an online library to help other interested ranchers and

 

farmers successfully convert to animal compassionate methods.

 

4. Providing research money to animal scientists at universities

around

 

the world to conduct scientific studies of more compassionate animal

 

raising techniques to address the hundreds of challenges currently

 

faced by ranchers and farmers trying to raise animals more

 

compassionately.

 

By holding its first global five percent day, Whole Foods Market

envisions raising $500,000 as seed money to establish this library of

ever expanding information to help educate and inspire farm animal

producers.

 

" The mission of the Animal Compassion Foundation is to help develop

techniques of animal husbandry that supersede even the best practices

found today, " said Margaret Wittenberg, vice president of governmental

and public affairs for Whole Foods Market and chair of the Animal

Compassion Foundation. " Over time, we believe we can build an

ever-increasing bank of knowledge which will enable compassionate

methods to spread and ideally, producers will see the value in this

endeavor and be inspired to follow this lead. "

 

The success of the Animal Compassion Foundation will be measured by

feedback from livestock producers, the number of producers interested

in compassionate production methods, and the success of those who

raise their livestock humanely while remaining cost efficient and

productive.

 

In December 2003, Whole Foods Market began a rigorous process of

creating enhanced farm animal treatment standards above and beyond the

strict animal welfare already required by the company. These enhanced

standards are to be completed by 2008 for every species sold by the

company and are being developed jointly by Whole Foods Market and

animal welfare advocacy groups. Among these groups are: The Humane

Society of the United States; People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals; Viva! USA; Animal Welfare Institute; Animal Rights

International; animal welfare scientists including Dr. Ian Duncan of

the University of Guelph and Dr. Renee Bergeron of Universite Laval;

and Steritech, an independent third-party animal welfare auditor.

 

" Whole Foods Market currently does more for animal welfare than any

retailer in the industry and we currently require our producers to

adhere to strict standards. However, our intentions are to step into a

leadership role to raise these standards even higher and to do more to

promote the well-being of farm animals, " added Wittenberg.

 

The launch of the Animal Compassion Foundation parallels the

development of these upcoming enhanced species-specific standards,

which will give shoppers peace of mind in knowing they can find the

highest-quality meat products that adhere to Whole Foods Market's

strict standards and values which include raising farm animals with

compassion.

 

" Whole Foods Market helped spark the rising consumer interest and the

explosive industry growth of natural and organic foods. As we

celebrate our 25th year, the Animal Compassion Foundation will give us

the opportunity to stay true to our company's core values which have

led us to this endeavor while helping us continue to be responsible

tenants of the planet, " Mackey said. " We hope that the new animal

compassionate standards and the knowledge collected by the Animal

Compassion Foundation will eventually become the global standards

embraced and utilized by every animal welfare group, animal producer

and food retailer. "

 

About Whole Foods Market®:

 

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market

(http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com ) is the world's leading natural and

organic foods supermarket and America's first national certified

organic grocer. In fiscal year 2004, the company had sales of $3.9

billion and currently has 166 stores in the United States, Canada, and

the United Kingdom. The Whole Foods Market motto, " Whole Foods, Whole

People, Whole Planet " captures the company's mission to find

success in customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and

happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and

environmental improvement. Whole Foods Market, Harry's Farmers

Market®, and Fresh & Wild® are trademarks owned by Whole Foods

Market

IP, LP. Whole Foods Market employs more than 30,000 team members and

has been ranked for seven consecutive years as one of the " 100 Best

Companies to Work for " in America by Fortune magazine.

 

Contacts:

Amy Hopfensperger Kate Lowery

512-485-3600 ext. 3728 512-485-3600 ext. 3725

amy.hopfensperger kate.lowery

 

 

 

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