Lathem Family Farms becomes newest Certified Humane® egg farm

David Lathem, the farm’s owner, is a second generation farmer. Lathem’s father started raising chickens in 1957, and today, Lathem runs the farm with his nephew and son teaching them how to farm as well. In the past few years, they’ve made significant changes, including building a new organic laying hen farm and becoming Certified Humane®. The Lathem’s pride themselves on their state-of-the-art facilities that were designed and built to meet the HFAC animal care standards for laying hens.

“The Certified Humane® program has an excellent reputation,” Lathem said.  “I had the opportunity to visit several other Certified Humane® laying hen farms, and I was very impressed with the health and well-being of the birds being raised under their standards.”  Lathem also noted that the Certified Humane® standards complemented the organic program by providing the animal welfare component.

“Our customers really care about the way our hens are raised,” he said, “and they know they can trust the Certified Humane® label.”

Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of farm animals by certifying their humane treatment.  Supported by more than 38 humane organizations, the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® program is nationally recognized as the Gold Standard for certifying animal welfare from birth through slaughter.  Since the program was unveiled in May 2003, more than 85 companies, representing thousands of farms and millions of farm animals, have been certified.

HFAC’s Animal Care Standards were developed by a veritable “Who’s Who” of national and international animal scientists and farm-animal welfare experts. Producer compliance with the HFAC standards is verified through annual on-site visits by HFAC’s third-party inspectors.

Latham Family Farms supplies Costco’s Kirkland Signature Organic Eggs for the Southeast United States. For more information on where to find Certified Humane® products, visit HFAC’s {cms_selflink page=’where-to-buy’ text=’“Where to Buy” ‘}page.