We just spoke with adventurer John Peaveler all the way from Iceland via satellite phone. John was calling from his tent after he had paddled out of the open sea into a more protected fjord where he found a good camping site to wait out a storm and spend the night. After setting up camp, John took a few minutes to fill us in on his epic kayak trip around Iceland .
As you may remember, on June 1, John launched a 1,100 mile kayak around the coast of Iceland to raise awareness for Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) and the plight of farm animals around the world. No stranger to animal welfare, John is Managing Director for the Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH). John believes deeply in goals of the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® program and chose HFAC as the inaugural charity to be recognized in his “Kayaking for a Cause” expeditions. In the future he hopes to attempt more international trips that focus on a variety of important causes.
John has been on the trip for now 15 days and has paddled about eight of them. “The weather has been really challenging,” he said. “Rain and lots of wind, wind that makes it very difficult to be in the water.” A good day, with decent weather, will have him paddling about 13 hours with rest break in between. “The rest breaks take place in the kayak, or is we can get it to shore, there, as the kayak is such a tightly, efficiently laid out boat, there isn’t much room to stretch out. At night I camp on the shoreline, or if I’m lucky, find a local inn or hotel.”
The summer temperatures in Iceland are not what one would call hot. In fact, the temperatures average 50 degrees a day. But John has been experiencing highs of only 40 degrees with rain, wind and dense fog. He wears a dry suit in the kayak which does a good job protecting him from the elements.
John’s current position has him on the northwest side of the country. An upcoming challenge is a large land mass that looks like a horn jutting west off the coast of the country. The sea around this horn crashes into large cliffs making the ocean very challenging to navigate. Even more so with bad weather. “Local guides who have been paddling these waters all their lives and who are experts have told me they wouldn’t try to go around it in these situations, so I’m taking a rest day today and hope that conditions improve. If they wouldn’t attempt it, neither would I,” he said. “Once I get on the other side of the country, conditions should make the paddling a bit easier.”
His longest day so far has had him covering over 26 miles, with a typical day, in good conditions, averaging about 15 miles. Some days he paddles very close to the coast line, while others he is a mile out. Still other times the ocean features require he is a whopping 3 or 4 miles from the shore. That’s a lot of hard work in open seas.
John reports that Iceland is beautiful and he has run into a lot of sheep and an amazing variety of birds!
Out of curiosity we asked if he is anywhere near the pesky erupting volcano that has caused such havoc around the world the past few months. “Way on the other side of the country,” he said. “I’m nowhere near it.” Good to know!
Follow John’s incredible trip on our website www.certifiedhumane.org
Posted: December 22, 2010 by Certified Humane
Your Efforts are Making a Difference
We get calls and e-mails all the time asking how the Certified Humane® program is different from other certification programs out there. People want to purchase food they can be assured comes from farm animals raised under humane guidelines. The challenge is that having many different labels in the marketplace can be confusing and sometimes misleading.
So today we released a comprehensive, side-by-side comparison of major U.S. animal welfare labels. The chart analyzes the five leading food labeling programs dedicated to animal welfare: Certified Humane®, Animal Welfare Approved, Global Animal Partnership (Whole Foods), USDA/Organic and American Humane Certified.
This chart is designed to show you, the consumer, what each label means under specific programs. By consulting the chart you can now make a more informed decision when purchasing food.
Check out the chart here: Comparison Chart
All of your efforts to take comment cards to retailers urging them to carry Certified Humane® products in their stores are having an impact. Because of your efforts, products that are Certified Humane® are sold in over 4,000 retailers nationwide. They are being sold at regular supermarkets, not expensive specialty stores, but regular supermarkets that many of us shop in. You can visit our products finder Where to Buy to locate a store near you.
Thank you for all your efforts and I’m counting on you to tell your friends and family about Certified Humane® and ask them to help spread the word in the New Year! It’s because of you that we have been able to make such good progress. It is because of you that many millions of farm animals had better lives in 2010.
Best wishes to you and your families in 2011!
_
Adele Douglass, Executive Director
Posted: July 29, 2010 by Certified Humane
Lets Talk Turkey.
Recently I visited one of the small farms on our program. While there I noticed the small pens of turkeys. I realized this is the growing season for Thanksgiving turkeys and I realized that now is the time for consumers to let turkey growers know what they want, or there still will be no Certified Humane® turkeys for Thanksgiving 2010. For those of you who are vegan or vegetarian and know people who are still meat eaters, encourage those friends to support this effort.
We still have not identified any turkey producers that can meet our standards. We have some multi-species farmers who produce small numbers of turkeys, but no larger producer has applied to our program. The reason usually given to me for why turkey producers won’t apply is that they don’t need to. They believe the public doesn’t care and as long as there is no demand for Certified Humane® turkeys they see no need to make any changes to meet our standards.
Since there is minimal supply and a lot of demand, the staff and I concluded that the suppliers are not hearing about the demand.
Farmers consider retailers to be their customers. And as consumers, you buy from retailers. You can make the most significant impact by asking retailers to offer turkeys and turkey products that are Certified Humane®. You know when you see the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® logo, that the turkeys were raised with enough space so they are not crowded, they can move around, they have fresh air to breathe, they are not fed animal by-products or antibiotics (hormones are prohibited in poultry by law), and have been processed in the most humane way possible.
Can you help? If you can, please go to our Take Action page on our website and download the “Turkey Request Form.” Sign it and whenever you go to a new grocery store, drop it off with the meat manager, or at the customer service desk. Please ask your friends and neighbors to do the same. If you can’t download this and would like us to send you some of these forms, please email us at info@certifiedhumane.org and with your name and address and say you would like Turkey Request Forms.
Posted: June 23, 2010 by Certified Humane
Further News from Iceland
John continues his quest to kayak the coast of Iceland to raise awareness for Humane Farm Animal Care and the Certified Humane® program.
John’s currents position is on the Northwestern portion of the country just above the town of Kalfshamarsvik. Unfortunately the elements have not been on John’s side. He reports rough days with heavy cross winds.
He did have a break however with good weather and was able to make a long crossing of 37 miles! That evening he found a great campsite and reported tired muscles. The scenery continues to be stunning and he has been seeing “thousands” of bird and seals.
A picture of John’s awesome campsite below.
Latest weather forecast is still grim. “Very bad weather forecast. High winds and heavy seas for the next three days. I may be off the water for a while. It’s quite cold up here,” he says.
John has been paddling for almost a month now, and hopes to wrap the trip up in several weeks. He looks forward to a warm bed and spending time with his family.
And a picture his toughest camp, wind all night long makes for not the greatest sleep. The scenery is still stunning however.
We are grateful to John for his efforts to promote our organization and keep the issue of farm animal welfare in the eye of the international public.
We will keep you up to date on his progress. We know your thoughts and prayers are with him.
Adele
PS -next week, let’s talk turkeys!
Posted: June 22, 2010 by Certified Humane
An update on John’s adventures
We just spoke with adventurer John Peaveler all the way from Iceland via satellite phone. John was calling from his tent after he had paddled out of the open sea into a more protected fjord where he found a good camping site to wait out a storm and spend the night. After setting up camp, John took a few minutes to fill us in on his epic kayak trip around Iceland .
As you may remember, on June 1, John launched a 1,100 mile kayak around the coast of Iceland to raise awareness for Humane Farm Animal Care (HFAC) and the plight of farm animals around the world. No stranger to animal welfare, John is Managing Director for the Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH). John believes deeply in goals of the Certified Humane Raised and Handled® program and chose HFAC as the inaugural charity to be recognized in his “Kayaking for a Cause” expeditions. In the future he hopes to attempt more international trips that focus on a variety of important causes.
John has been on the trip for now 15 days and has paddled about eight of them. “The weather has been really challenging,” he said. “Rain and lots of wind, wind that makes it very difficult to be in the water.” A good day, with decent weather, will have him paddling about 13 hours with rest break in between. “The rest breaks take place in the kayak, or is we can get it to shore, there, as the kayak is such a tightly, efficiently laid out boat, there isn’t much room to stretch out. At night I camp on the shoreline, or if I’m lucky, find a local inn or hotel.”
The summer temperatures in Iceland are not what one would call hot. In fact, the temperatures average 50 degrees a day. But John has been experiencing highs of only 40 degrees with rain, wind and dense fog. He wears a dry suit in the kayak which does a good job protecting him from the elements.
John’s current position has him on the northwest side of the country. An upcoming challenge is a large land mass that looks like a horn jutting west off the coast of the country. The sea around this horn crashes into large cliffs making the ocean very challenging to navigate. Even more so with bad weather. “Local guides who have been paddling these waters all their lives and who are experts have told me they wouldn’t try to go around it in these situations, so I’m taking a rest day today and hope that conditions improve. If they wouldn’t attempt it, neither would I,” he said. “Once I get on the other side of the country, conditions should make the paddling a bit easier.”
His longest day so far has had him covering over 26 miles, with a typical day, in good conditions, averaging about 15 miles. Some days he paddles very close to the coast line, while others he is a mile out. Still other times the ocean features require he is a whopping 3 or 4 miles from the shore. That’s a lot of hard work in open seas.
John reports that Iceland is beautiful and he has run into a lot of sheep and an amazing variety of birds!
Out of curiosity we asked if he is anywhere near the pesky erupting volcano that has caused such havoc around the world the past few months. “Way on the other side of the country,” he said. “I’m nowhere near it.” Good to know!
Follow John’s incredible trip on our website www.certifiedhumane.org
Posted: April 11, 2010 by Certified Humane
Welcome to our new Website!
For those of you who don’t know who I am, let me introduce myself. My name is Adele Douglass and I am the founder and executive director of Humane Farm Animal Care and creator of the Certified Humane® program.
Welcome to our new website!
We developed this new website in response to feedback from all of you who have let us know what you wanted. I hope these new features will make it easier to find the information you need.
Our home page is designed to be more “user friendly.” There are sub-menus so you can more easily find what you are looking for. You can put your mouse over a photo, or across the top bar and it will list what categories are there.
The newest feature on our website is our interactive searchable data base. For those of you who want to find Certified Humane® products, just type in your zip code, or city and a list of places to buy them will come up along with a listing of what Certified Humane® products are sold in those stores. It will make it easier for you to purchase certified products and let these retailers know that you support farming that is done right! If there are not enough products that you want, go to our “Take Action” page and print off a request to take with you to your local market asking your grocery manager to stock more products that are Certified Humane®. If there are no stores in your area, check the “purchase online” section in the “Where to Buy” section. Many small farmers sell online all over the US. Check those farms out and help them and help yourselves, too.
We have informaton about the program for producers, and for consumers. Our standards and fact sheets are easier to find and available for download If you want to: take action for animals,: we have material you can download right now to do that. Our survey is still here, so if you haven’t taken our survey, please do, it gives us good information about what you want, how you found us and what the demographics are of people who care about humane foods.
And for the press we have an electronic press kit that is under the news section to make it easier for you to get the background information you need in one place.
This blog will be frequently be updated and will be used to discuss issues,and as a platform to make our consumers aware of issues they should know about.
The program has grown and couldn’t have grown without the help of all of you. We rely on your input, and your support,so please let me know what you think of our new website. And as always, if you have questions about the program, the standards or the organization, please continue to email me at info@certifiedhumane.org
Adele