Honokaa, Hawaii

Located on a total of 400 acres in Honokaa, Hawaii, the Hawaii Lowline Cattle Company was started by Rick and Haleakala Sakata and Dwayne and Tammie Cypriano in 2005.

The two families run every aspect of the farm themselves, from farm animal care to administrative and marketing duties. They want to advance Hawaii’s food self-sufficiency by building a herd of Lowline Angus cattle on their ranch. According to Sakata, Hawaii Lowline Cattle Company is part of a resurgence in Hawaii of raising and finishing cattle locally and on pasture land. Their farm raises the only registered Lowlines in the state of Hawaii.

Originating in Australia, Lowlines are Angus beef cattle that are only about half the typical “Angus” size – 500 pounds for heifers and 550 pounds for steers. “Two Lowlines can use the pasture space of one of today’s larger breeds, providing more beef per acre of grass and making the land more productive,” said Sakata. “That’s very important on an island with limited pasture space.”

Hawaii Lowline Cattle Company purchased their first Lowlines from the mainland in 2008. They choose to fly the cattle to Hawaii rather than ship them in a seven-day journey across the ocean, “to reduce travel stress, even though it was more expensive,” said Sakata.

Hawaii Lowline Cattle Company raises cattle in a stress-free environment. The bulls and cows are out on the farm’s grass pastures all year-round, eating a natural diet of grass and forage, thanks to Hawaii’s mild climate. They are never fed on feedlots. The farm also rotates pastures to reduce over grazing and to maintain the quality of grass in each paddock.

“We really love doing this and care about the animals living naturally on the land,” said Sakata. “They are very gentle and so require gentle handling. We don’t need horses to corral them; they pretty much come when we call them.”

As more and more people learn about Certified Grass-Fed Beef, “it became important for us to let consumers know what that means in terms of how the animals are raised,” said Sakata. “Becoming Certified Humane was a natural next step. Their standards align with our beliefs and practices and assures the consumer of our commitment to animal welfare.”

Hawaii Lowline Cattle Company Certified Grassfed Beef is only sold in Hawaii. They also are certified by the American Grassfed Association and by Animal Welfare Approved.

“Our first island born calf was born in 2008,” Sakata says proudly. “A true Hawaiian.”

For more information, visit www.hawaiilowline.com.

Founded in 1994 in São Paulo state, Korin is a Brazilian company that follows the Natural Agriculture principles, a model proposed by Mokiti Okada (Japan, 1882 – 1955). Okada’s philosophical approaches led the company to create a distinguished production system looking at the worldwide trends of progressive food production such as the producer and consumers´ health, environmental preservation, and social responsibility. As a result, Korin was the first company in Brazil to establish a large scale production of broilers and layers free of antibiotics, free of growth promoters, chemicals and animal by product ingredients in the birds´ diet.

In addition to the Antibiotic free (AF) broilers, the company is the largest Brazilian organic chicken producer, also delivering free-range broilers and eggs.

This progressive production system has a range of meaningful differences. Starting from the most basic handlings related to the farmers and their farms, to the final consumers due to choices motivated by tangible and intangible values.

In order to be able to have such successful production systems, the animals´ immunologic system must be in excellent conditions. Therefore, it is essential to preserve the animals’ welfare. For this reason, the welfare practices have always been part of the production process of the company. As animal welfare has been better known and more systematized, the company pursued the certification system aiming to let consumers know the special practices that make Korin eggs and chickens so special.

Hence, in 2009 Korin became the first company to reach the animal welfare certification through the implantation of the Farm and Animal Welfare Council – FAWA, established by Ecocert Brasil® in Brazil. Since then, Korin has earned the Certified Humane Brasil® certification and proudly displays the certification label on its products.

According to Luiz Carlos Demattê Filho, Korin´s industrial director, one of the most substantial reasons to encourage the animal welfare introduction in production systems of various countries is the worldwide ongoing restrictions to antibiotics use in animal production. Thus, food companies are being guided by consumer preferences to improve production practices due to the strong connection between the non-use of those substances and human well-being issues. The following chart explains this relation:

Another important point that contributed to the prosperity of differentiation initiatives pointed out by Demattê is the “new” consumer profile that has been acquiring a greater awareness of ethics and issues related to food security.

Being a pioneer in alternative poultry production, the company generates and validates new technologies. To reach such status, Korin has a partnership in research and technological development with Mokiti Okada Research Center – (CPMO in Portuguese), an institution associated to Mokiti Okada Foundation in Brazil.

One of the CPMO´s research lines involves research activities related to Environment and Animal Welfare. The partnership outcomes have been contributing greatly to the enhancement of welfare issues and consequently to the improvement of the company production rates. The performed experiments are published in national and international scientific papers. They are framed as a way to promote and incentive other initiatives focused on animal welfare, human health and sustainability of production units.

For information on where to find other Certified Humane® products in your area, visit the “Shop” page of HFAC’s website.

Stiebrs Farms began as the American dream of Latvian immigrants Jan and Zelma Stiebrs, who purchased 100 hens with the idea of selling fresh eggs in 1953. Now one of the Northwest’s premier cage-free and organic egg producers, the Yelm, Washington-based company distributes its eggs throughout the Northwest.

The business is still family-run by Jan’s and Zelma’s son Jon, his wife Dianna, and their three children, Kiasa, Yany and Ania. Their three grandchildren, Hailey, Abby and Jacob are the fourth generation of Stiebrs to join the growing business.

Jon learned the business as a young boy, when he helped his father sell their first eggs door to door to neighbors and friends. The business gradually expanded into retail outlets in Tacoma, Washington, and was soon earning enough to sustain the family. When Jan and Zelma retired in 1978, Jon and Dianna took over the business.

In September 2006, Stiebrs Farms became the first egg producer in the Washington state to meet the qualifications to use the Certified Humane® label.

“It has always been important to us to provide only the freshest, highest-quality eggs to our customers. The Certified Humane label assures our customers that we care not only about the quality of our eggs, but about the well-being of our hens,” says Kiasa (Stiebrs) Kuykendall. “Our hens live in large community houses where they’re free to perch, dust, nest and socialize proudly. They receive fresh well water and a special blend of vegetarian feed. Our organic hens enjoy grassy outdoor yards.”

Organic feed for the animals is milled onsite at Stiebrs Farms’ certified organic feed mill. The eggs are certified organic by the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Stiebrs now has 70 employees to help manage the business, gather eggs by hand and care for the animals. The company owns its own processing plant where eggs are sorted and packaged. Stiebrs manages its own marketing, sales and distribution, and has five delivery trucks that make daily rounds throughout Washington and Northern Oregon.

To learn more, visit their website at: Stiebrs Farms

For information on where to find other Certified Humane® products in your area, visit the “Shop” page of HFAC’s website.

White Oak Pastures, a 1000-acre farm in Early County, Georgia, was founded by James Edward Harris in 1866 following his Civil War service as a Captain. He and the 100 sharecroppers who worked on the farm raised crops, cows and pigs. Every Saturday, a cow and several pigs were harvested to feed his family and the workers.

By the early part of the 20th century, when James’s son, Will, ran the farm, White Oak Pastures was harvesting cows and pigs every morning, six days a week. The meat was loaded on a mule-drawn wagon and hauled three miles up a dirt road to the town of Bluffton, where it was delivered to four general stores, a hotel and a boarding house.

Will Harris III, the fifth generation of Harisses to run the farm, says, “Our farm was the entity that produced local food for families that lived on the farm and the surrounding communities.” But that changed after World War II, when the Harrises joined the agriculturalindustrial revolution and began raising only calves, using growth-promoting hormones, antibiotics and high-grain feeds. The cattle were sent out West to be fed and then shipped all over the world.

“Now, we’re going back to the way my granddaddy raised cattle,” said Harris. “We decided that consumers should be able to eat simple, natural, healthy beef that is raised the old-fashioned way.”

Harris and his family keep 650 “mama cows,” a bigger herd than his grandfather raised, but otherwise reflecting the same philosophy. “We’re back to producing food for a more local community. The cattle are once again being raised on Southern sunshine, unpolluted country air and the native grasses that grow in the fertile coastal soil of southwest Georgia.”

While his wife teaches school and one daughter, Jenni,18, is away at college, his 22-year-old daughter, Jessica, also a schoolteacher, keeps the books and manages the office at the farm. Jodi, age 15, is the family cowgirl, who loves working with the horses and cattle. His grandmother, Eloise, 85, still lives on the farm and makes lunch for the crew every day.

Fortunately for Harris, his cattle’s clean-living lifestyle is increasingly popular with consumers, too. His White Oak Pastures Natural Ground Beef already has a following, with distribution in supermarkets in Atlanta and natural foods stores throughout the Southeastern U.S. from Miami to Washington, D.C.

White Oak Pastures sells only high-quality ground beef that is derived from premium cuts — the loin, rib eye and sirloin. Grassfed beef is high in Omega 3 fatty acids and other nutrients.Harris believes he has found a niche among consumers who like the hearty taste, health benefits and sustainable farming practices inherent in raising grass-fed cattle.

“We do the right thing for our animals and for the soil and water on our land. We raise our beef for food safety, for its health benefits and, of course, for flavor,” said Harris.

To learn more, visit their website at: White Oak Pastures

For information on where to find other Certified Humane® products in your area, visit the “Shop” page of HFAC’s website.

In 2007, Matt O’Hayer and his wife, Catherine, founded Vital Farms with a small plot of farmland, 20 laying hens and a bucket of good intentions. Their mission: to bring high quality, ethically produced eggs to the table through the humane treatment of their hens through the Pasture-Raised farming method.

Animal welfare and the humane treatment of laying hens remains at the heart of Vital Farms’ mission. Their hens (the “Girls on Grass”, or “the Girls”, as they are affectionately called) are provided with plenty of room to roam (108 sq. ft. of pasture for each hen), fresh air, and sunshine year round. “We are very happy to be at the forefront of something that will be revolutionary in agriculture and provide people with a healthy and more ethical alternative to industrial eggs,” says Dan Brooks.

A further representation of Vital Farms’ commitment to a consistent animal welfare standard is their decision to have all their farms designated Certified Humane®.  “We wanted a top-shelf, independent certification program to validate for our customers that we walk the walk when it comes to animal welfare,” he adds.  “We researched several programs, but Humane Farm Animal Care’s Certified Humane® standards were the most stringent.”

Vital Farms is one of the few pasture-raised egg companies in the United States.  Their operations include over 100 farms based in Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Georgia, all raising laying hens in a total outdoor pasture system, with access to shelters at night. Vital Farms has experimented with a number of different breeds to be able to find birds that can handle weather extremes and outdoor living.

“Raising hens in an all-pasture system is complicated and relies on highly-trained employees well-versed in pasture-raising and the humane treatment of hens,” says Dan Brooks. “They must protect the hens from predators, as well as occasional inclement weather.”

Vital Farms also created a unique channel for independent family farmers. Recognizing the vulnerability of small farms in the face of a tough economy, they work together with producers to improve their facilities and practices to meet the Certified Humane® standards as well as their own protocols.

“Through Vital Farms, these small independent farms can reach a broad customer base looking for ethically produced and sustainable eggs,” Brooks stated. “The success of the company is defined by its dedicated employees. Everyone who works for Vital Farms is really happy about what they are doing every day.  It’s easy to work hard and have a lot of energy when you believe in what you’re doing.”

To learn more, visit their website at: Vital Farm

For information on where to find other Certified Humane® products in your area, visit the “Shop” page of HFAC’s website.