Our beef cattle are 100% grass-fed and finished (no corn, soy, or grain, ever) and raised outdoors on herbicide and pesticide-free pasture, humanely handled without the use of electric prods, and are never given antibiotics or hormones of any kind. It is also dry aged as whole sides for 7-14 days.
Our Standards
The best methods produce the best products
BEEF
PORK
Our heritage cross breed pigs live outdoors on herbicide and pesticide-free pasture during the growing season rather than on concrete, they don’t get nose rings, they have never seen a farrowing crate or cage of any kind, and they have never received antibiotics or hormones.
LAMB
Our lamb are raised outdoors on herbicide and pesticide-free pastures – they are humanely handled without the use of electric prods, have never eaten corn or corn bi-products, and have never been treated with antibiotics or hormones.
CHICKEN
Our chickens are raised outdoors on herbicide and pesticide-free pastures, without the use of antibiotics, hormones, additives, or cages of any kind. After processing, they are exclusively air chilled, which results in the best flavor and no added water!
See for yourself!
And We're Pushing Standards Even Further!
We started Walden to contribute to a renaissance of regenerative pasture based agriculture right here in New York and New England, a region particularly well suited to growing grass! These practices are better for animals, the environment, and the member families we serve. In particular the humane handling of animals and the respect for the whole animal has been foundational to our business from the start. That is why our farmer partnerships are so critical to us, and why we print the name of our farmers on every package.
We are committed to add to our existing farmer verification and audit system an animal welfare certification recognized by the ASPCA® Shop With Your Heart program by 2020 across all four of our proteins: beef, pork, lamb and chicken. As we are a growing cooperative effort and our goal is to move the entire region forward towards better practices, we will give new farmers a 12 month period to undergo certification recognized by the ASPCA® Shop With Your Heart program.
As we already value higher chicken breeds and quality, to join the larger movement of improving the lives of chickens by 2024, we will ensure our higher welfare rearing conditions: match or better GAP’s standards (for example, on space per bird, lighting, litter, and enrichment), require that birds are processed using a multi-step controlled atmosphere processing system that’s widely hailed as more humane, and verify using third-party auditing.
