New Mexico Business: Wild Oats to Sell Eggs Certified as Humanely Raised

Humane Animal Farm Care, a nonprofit based in Virginia, says Hidden Villa Ranch of Fullerton, Calif., has been approved to use the organization’s “Certified Humane” label on the cage-free and organic cage-free eggs that it produces for the Wild Oats brand.

Hidden Villa is one of the largest eggs distributors in the U.S. and supplies all of Wild Oats’ branded cage-free and organic cage-free eggs, which are raised on farms in Texas, Iowa and Washington.

“Other chains may claim that they care about how farm animals are treated, but Hidden Villa and Wild Oats are confident enough in their practices to become certified by an objective, science-based, third-party certifier,” said Adele Douglas, founder and executive director of Human Animal Farm Care, in a prepared statement.

Boulder, CO-based Wild Oats (Nasdaq: OATS), has 113 natural foods stores in 24 states and Canada, including three in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe. The store in Santa Fe was the chain’s first supermarket-sized store.