Published 5/9/2018

PCC Community Markets, the largest consumer-owned food cooperative in the US, has joined Compassion in World Farming’s Better Chicken Initiative!

PCC Community Markets (PCC) is among the first retailers to announce a policy for better living conditions and genetics for chickens raised for meat. PCC’s new commitment is historic: not only will their new, improved welfare standards apply to their fresh and frozen chicken, but also to its ready-to-eat offerings.

Momentum is gaining for better treatment of chickens in the US. All five of the top food service companies have committed to changing their chicken sourcing, and so have popular restaurants like Subway, TGI Fridays, and Moe’s Southwest Grill.

This marks major progress for chickens, the most factory-farmed animal in the world. Modern chickens are bred to grow so big, so fast that they often can’t support their own weight. They can suffer from leg pain and heart attacks, and are crammed by the thousands into dimly-lit sheds.

But change is on the horizon for these intelligent, social birds. Food companies like PPC Community Markets are stepping up by switching to healthier breeds of chicken whose genetics do not inherently cause suffering, and offering improved living conditions.

Specifically, PCC Community Markets has committed to implement the following changes by 2024:

• Source only chicken breeds that are approved by Global Animal Partnership (GAP) as having higher welfare outcomes;
• Source only chickens that are given more space, per GAP’s standards;
• Ensure all chickens sourced have an improved environment, including litter, lighting and enrichment, per GAP’s standards;
• Source only chickens that are more humanely processed, through a multi-step, controlled-atmosphere system; and
• Demonstrate compliance with these standards via third party auditing.

Compassion in World Farming applauds PCC Community Markets for making higher animal welfare a priority, and we are pleased to welcome them as the latest member of the Better Chicken Initiative.

You can encourage more companies to commit to giving farmed animals better lives by signing up for our action alerts, to take action when urgently needed: