What We Believe

Continuously Investing in Animal Welfare Leadership

 

Leadership Investment – fairlife has invested in additional leadership roles to oversee our animal welfare program and partner with our supplying farms to bring our vision to life. In January 2020 we hired a full-time Director of Animal Welfare and Sustainable Farming, Dr. Marissa Hake, DVM. Dr. Hake will oversee fairlife audits and work with farmers on improvement plans. In addition, Dr. Hake will lead our Animal Welfare Council.

Advisory Council – We’ve convened an external team of leading, independent advisors to help fairlife chart its course and continuously challenge our thinking on animal welfare. We’ve selected our advisors to provide a wide breadth of relevant expertise on animal health, behavior and welfare science, bioethics, nutrition, and management. In addition to academic expertise, several have direct experience working within the dairy industry in areas such as on-farm animal husbandry and management and provision of veterinary service on-farm. We’re retaining our external advisors to inform us of cutting edge scientific, technological, and ethical developments that are critical to shaping our discussions and decisions about our suppliers’ animal care practices and the leadership role we have in sustainable dairy production.

Employee, Partner and Consumer Feedback – We recognize the importance of having a continuing dialogue around animal agriculture, as it’s through working together that we can provide solutions to the challenge of providing great nutrition to a growing global population. We welcome all questions, concerns, and ideas, which you can submit to [email protected].

Strong Farmer Partnerships

 

Farm Culture – A major determinant of animal welfare outcomes is the attitude of animal caretakers and farm managers to animals. For people to show care and compassion for animals requires commitment to their own care and dignity. fairlife and its supplying farms are therefore prioritizing caretaker education that emphasizes the understanding that cows and calves are sentient animals deserving of compassion and respect. All farm staff have a collective responsibility to promote and protect the well-being of each team member so that a culture is created that upholds the values of care and compassion for animals and people.

Training – All supplying farms have regularly scheduled training for those who work with animals, as outlined and defined by the FARM Animal Care Program.

Monitoring and Oversight – Many supplying farms have committed to having cameras installed by the end of 2023. When used ethically, cameras not only provide monitoring and oversight but can be used to enhance employee feedback, training, and on-farm culture.

Hotline – We require that all supplying farms provide access to a 24/7 anonymous hotline to report concerns of animal abuse, violations of animal well-being, or disregard for worker policies and programs.

Our Animal Welfare Priorities

 

Animal Well-Being – Our partner farmers are committed to the well-being of their cows. Each farm has veterinarian oversight to provide frequent wellness checks to ensure the overall health and wellness of the animals.

Housing – All farms that supply to fairlife must offer cows and calves housing environments that are designed to keep the animals clean, safe, and comfortable. Cow and calf housing must be regularly monitored to ensure thermal comfort of the animals. In keeping with current science and public expectations, we’ll encourage and incentivize all supplying farms to pursue innovation that further ensures general animal comfort.

Humane Handling – fairlife recognizes that dairy cattle should be handled with patience, care, and compassion to minimize unpleasant mental states such as fear and distress, maximize their comfort, and ensure their physical safety as well as that of their handlers. We require our suppliers to ensure that animal caretakers are trained in low-stress cow and calf handling. Supplying farms should utilize handling facilities, equipment, and procedures that reduce stress to the cattle, and they should monitor the animals consistently during handling to better protect the physical safety of animals.

Transportation – Working together with our supplying farms, fairlife has created specific standards that define transportation responsibility. Supplying farms are directly responsible for arranging for safe transportation both on and off their farms, irrespective of animal ownership.

Pain Mitigation – fairlife is committed to improving pain detection, identifying routine practices that cause pain to cows and calves, and finding alternatives to avoid or mitigate pain.

ZERO Tolerance – All farms that supply milk to fairlife have committed to ZERO TOLERANCE of animal abuse. It’s our policy that all supplying farm employees must sign a Cow Care Agreement as part of their required training and continuously live by it.

Ongoing Governance

 

We have continued regular, unannounced audits of all farms that supply milk to fairlife. An independent 3rd party auditor, Food Safety Net Services, has found zero observations or incidents of animal abuse on any supplying farms. All farms have passed 100% of our “critical care standards” that require immediate action (examples of this include access to water, proper nutrition, and no branding), and all supplying farms are passing over 95% of our full audit comprised of over 120 standards. Our supplying farms are committed to continuously improving standards and everyday practices.

Many of our long-term supplying partner dairy farms are Validus Certified annually. As we continue to grow and bring in new farming partners, we will work with them to gain Validus Certification. In 2020 and 2021- 100% of the farms that supply our Midwest processing plant achieved Validus Certification. Validus is an ISO-certified, independent third-party animal welfare certification firm. They certify farms in the areas of Animal Welfare, Worker Care, and Environmental Practices