This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Peta has filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods, claiming that their “humane meat” range, something their customers pay highly for, is “deceptive and misleading”.

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The suit, which was filed in California on Monday, alleges that Whole Foods “is duping well-meaning shoppers into buying meat that they falsely label as humane”, according to Jared Goodman, director of animal law for Peta, the animal rights organization.

“We just want Whole Foods to stop this misleading advertising and give consumers the opportunity to make this educated decision,” he said.

The high-end grocery store has a “5-Step Animal Welfare Rating” program. As animals are treated better, the supplier receives a higher rating, which is reflected in the packaging. Whole Foods believes this “encourages producers to evolve their practices to attain higher Step ratings”.



The minimum rating for sale at Whole Foods is Step 1, which requires “no cages, no crates, no crowding”. The highest ranking is Step 5+, which requires practices that are more “animal centered”, with animals receiving extensive outdoor access and spending their entire lives on the same farm.

Peta alleges that Whole Foods standards “barely exceed common industry practices”; that they audit suppliers just once every 15 months; and that the process “is so lax that it does not actually ensure compliance with the 5-Step Rating System”.

Michael Silverman, a spokesman for Whole Foods, said that the company is “aware that Peta has filed a suit against us in California, but have not yet been served”.

“It is important to remember that PETA’s mission is a total end to animal agriculture and animal meat consumption, and their claims against our business are generated with that specific goal in mind,” he wrote in an email to the Guardian.

The lawsuit was filed shortly after Peta released a video, which they included in the class action, alleging abuse of pigs at a farm in Pennsylvania that supplies some Whole Foods stores.

Goodman said the footage showed pigs “packed in sheds, unable to even touch grass for virtually their entire lives” and others who suffered for weeks “before finally being shot in the head”.

Silverman said Whole Foods visited the farm “within hours of being made aware of the video”.

They did have to end the farm’s practice of grabbing the pigs by the ears to restrain them before administering vaccines, but following that, he said, the animals “do meet all of the requirements for Gap [Global Animal Partnership] Step 2 certification”.

“Scenes that attempt to depict crowding in the house actually show the pigs grouping together on their own at one end of their large indoor area because that is where sprinklers, open curtains and fans are in place for their comfort,” he wrote.

“Scenes depicting pigs being held in a transport trailer were also manipulated by the PETA advocate – arm waving will have caused the pigs to group at one end.”

The class action also lists plaintiff Leah Williams, who told the Washington Post she is just “an ordinary everyday housewife” who wants to get what she pays for when she shops. The proposed class is seeking monetary relief, according to Goodman, for “the difference one would pay for animals raised on a factory farm and what they paid to buy meat products at Whole Foods”.

The Whole Foods ‘steps’

Step 5+

Animal centered, entire life on same farm

Step 5

Animal centered, no physical alterations

Step 4

Pasture centered

Step 3

Enhanced outdoor access

Step 2

Enriched environment

Step 1

No cages, no crates, no crowding