Citing considerations about animal welfare and product quality, six upscale restaurants here signed on as “Certified Humane” establishments. That designation of the national nonprofit organization Humane Farm Animal Care indicates operations that exclusively serve meat, poultry, egg and dairy products from humane-certified suppliers.

Everything went smoothly at last month’s debut of Home Farm, Sandy Lerner’s high-end butcher shop in Middleburg. Lerner, co-founder of Cisco Systems Inc., an animal-rights activist and philanthropist, showcased the cuts of meat from her humanely raised and slaughtered, rare-breed cattle, pigs and poultry that she produces from her 800-acre Ayrshire Farm estate in nearby Upperville.

The man in the boots and cowboy hat looks ready to ride in the county fair parade, but he’s really ready to go to work.  John Chaney is a rancher and a horseman who has spent his life developing his skills in both.

Although vegetables and fruit grown near the city have been the stars of the Greenmarkets for almost 30 years, pork, beef and lamb from local pastures are fast becoming the new darlings of the stands.

What’s in a label? The egg carton may proclaim “free range,” but because the term is unregulated by the government, you can’t really know if the chickens are foraging in an open field without visiting the farm.

Humane treatment of animals is gaining traction as a consumer issue – and a marketing niche.

One of the leading eastern USA natural lamb producers has joined the Certified Humane family of farmers and producers meeting exacting standards of humane care and handling for their livestock.

Food labels assure us that our chickens are free-range and our leafy greens are certified organic – but no official standards exist for labels touting the humane rearing of animals destined for the table.  At least, none did until 2003.

Jamison Farms, a supplier of fresh lamb to many of the nation’s finest restaurants, and Big Sky Ranch, a producer of natural Certified Hereford beef, have joined the ranks of companies approved by Humane Farm Animal Care to bear its “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” label.

I’m sure that’s what Whole Foods Market had in mind with the announcement earlier this month that the Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocery chain plans to create an Animal Compassion Foundation to “assist and inspire meat producers.”  Unfortunately, this seemingly noble gesture appears to be little more than a sugar-coated stunt to sidestep the ongoing challenge of humane livestock production.