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 our members. In particular, the humane handling of animals and the respect for the whole animal has been foundational to our business. 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.