Food Shopping from Home—You Can Buy Welfare-Certified Products Online

March 25, 2020

Calf

As so many of us try to limit trips to the grocery store, we wanted to share some resources to make it easier to find meat, eggs and dairy products from farms raising animals to higher welfare standards, as well as plant-based alternatives. Being selective about food may not be possible for many during this time—but if you can, we urge you to support the farmers near you and across the country who are using more humane practices to raise animals. 

Disrupted supply chains, canceled events and shuttered businesses are threatening these independent farmers’ ability to survive. Luckily, many are utilizing online platforms to deliver directly to homes or offering on-farm pick up. In addition, many plant-based brands ship nationally and have the added benefit of longer shelf life.

Here are some resources from our Shop With Your Heart program that can help:

  1. Welfare-Certified Farms by State: A list of farms adhering to meaningful welfare standards, broken down by state and county—now with links to online stores, delivery services or other information about how to buy directly. Check for your closest local farm or farms in neighboring counties/states that ship to you.
  2. Welfare-Certified & Plant-Based Brand List: A list of meat, egg and dairy brands that have earned a meaningful animal welfare certification, as well as plant-based alternatives, that are available in major grocery stores or ship their products nationally. Each brand links out to an online store, list of retail locations or both.
  3. ShopKind Helpline: If you need instant guidance while out grocery shopping or meal planning, you can reach an ASPCA Farm team staff member by signing up for our text message-based ShopKind Helpline. We’ll answer your questions about the meaning of food labels, where to find products near you, and more.
In addition to these tools for consumers, the ASPCA is developing resources for the farmers and companies we work with so that they can continue to uphold higher animal welfare standards during these challenging times. If you would like to be kept up to date with new and evolving Shop With Your Heart resources and ways to help farm animals throughout the year, please join us by signing up here.

In these hard times, please take good care of yourself and others—we are all in this together. 

If you have suggestions on how the ASPCA can help farmers, businesses and consumers, please reach out to [email protected]