The Humane League
Sprouts Farmers Market is the latest US retailer to address all the standards of the Better Chicken Commitment. This is a huge step in the right direction for animal welfare.
Today, we’re celebrating a milestone for chickens raised for meat. At its stores across the country, Sprouts Farmers Market has pledged to end the worst abuses of chickens in its private meat label—Sprouts Butcher Shop—as well as its full-service case and rotisserie chicken. Compassionate consumers want companies to address this important issue, and they’re listening.
This announcement from Sprouts will change the lives of millions of chickens. And it pulls the entire food industry forward—closer to a future where no bird lives a life of suffering.
What is Sprouts Farmers Market?
Founded back in 2002, Sprouts is a natural foods store offering farm-fresh produce and organic choices at an affordable price point.
You’ll find Sprouts across the continental United States, from California up the coast to Washington, and from New Jersey down the Atlantic seaboard to Florida. With 362 locations across 23 states, Sprouts is among the nation’s top supermarket retailers. And it’s actively expanding. In 2020 alone, the company made over $6 billion in sales.
How is the New Sprouts Policy Good for Chickens?
The new policy from Sprouts offers concrete and measurable changes that will spare millions of chickens from the worst cruelties they face every day as victims of industrial agriculture.
In the United States, chickens make up 88% of all land animals raised for food. That’s nine billion chickens raised and killed for their meat every year. And for these birds, life is defined by pain, stress, and fear.
Chickens raised for meat—also called “broilers”—live out their short lives in overcrowded, dimly-lit, waste-strewn sheds, where the air is thick with dust and ammonia that burns their eyes and lungs. Selectively bred to grow to more than double their natural size at an explosive rate, the chickens suffer from diseases, deformities, and broken legs that buckle beneath their own weight.
The modern broiler chicken is so unhealthy that some die of thirst, physically unable to carry themselves to the water. Others die of heart attacks. And those who survive the factory farm will die—at just six or seven weeks old—through a terrifying process known as “live-shackle slaughter.”
Sadly, this cruelty is standard practice across the food industry. And it will continue unless corporations make real changes to their policies.
Taking a stand against many of the worst abuses of these sweet, gentle animals, and joining the ranks of other supermarkets like Whole Foods, Sprouts is moving away from cruelty—and toward compassion.
What Does the Sprouts Policy on Animal Welfare Actually Say?
The Sprouts policy meets every aspect of a powerful set of welfare standards known as the Better Chicken Commitment. This science-based welfare policy is the leading standard for broiler welfare. Sprouts has also pledged to report progress toward the Better Chicken Commitment each year.
In adopting Better Chicken Commitment standards, Sprouts promises to ban inhumane practices like live-shackle slaughter. This means the chickens in its supply chain will no longer face the risk of being boiled alive.
How Can I Help?
For the last five years, The Humane League has teamed up with consumers to convince food companies to protect chickens on factory farms from the most extreme forms of suffering. These giant corporations have the power to do better—and the most forward-thinking companies around the world are starting to embrace higher standards for animal welfare.
Momentum is building across the industry. Along with Sprouts, Natural Grocers, Kroger, and Giant Eagle are some of the latest retailers to introduce new policies protecting broilers from many of the worst abuses of industrial agriculture. Last week, Natural Grocers strengthened its chicken welfare policy. On August 4, Kroger announced its updated vision for animal welfare, which promises to take a first step toward improving the lives of chickens raised for meat. And on July 29, Giant Eagle became the first mainstream retailer to adopt the Better Chicken Commitment. Companies are waking up. Because consumers are speaking up.
Join our Fast Action Network (FAN) to create change as a digital activist. By taking online actions—like signing petitions and posting on social media—you can help the food industry understand why you care. Together, we can stand up for these animals who deserve so much better.
