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.

In the five years since DC’s restaurant Nora became America’s first certified organic restaurant, a growing cadre of ecologically conscious area chefs has followed chef Nora Pouillon’s example – not necessarily going fully organic, but paying increasingly close attention to the sources of the meat, fish and produce on their menus.

Reliable Labels: Certified Humane Raised and Handled.

All right, well the Thanksgiving table may be the final destination, but how the turkey actually gets there is a concern of a group of humane farmers in Virginia. CNN’s Louise Schiavone reports on why letting turkeys be turkeys might actually just make them better.

The grilled hanger steak on the lunch menu at Equinox (818 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-331-8118) is dressed up with an arugula salad, pickled red onions and Parmesan-flavored bechamel, but that’s not all that distinguishes the meat from that of the competition’s.

The California law fits into a growing international consensus concerning force-feeding for foie gras, which Israel, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Austria, Germany and other countries have passed laws to ban. It also reflects a broad movement.

It is one of the great biological and epistemological conundrums of all time, so, for the record, let’s pose the question once more. Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?  For me, it was the egg, but that’s only because I started my tour at the egg end of the operation at Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs.

In the continuing struggle between your socially conscience brain and your gourmet palate, there’s now a way to please both.

Apologists for the meat industry say they’re merely giving people what they want — lots of meat at low prices. Adele Douglass of Humane Farm Animal Care believes it is up to American consumers to demand something more.

Murray’s Chickens will add the “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” label to its packages starting in July, after the South Fallsburg, N.Y.-based company received approval from Humane Farm Animal Care, a national nonprofit organization based in Herndon, Va.