New Site Brings Transparency to Buying Poultry

What’s the difference between Grade A, organic, natural and free-range eggs? Amongst a sea of misleading food labels, Buying Poultry hopes to take the guess-work out of choosing the most humane and sustainable poultry products and plant-based alternatives. The company, an initiative of farm advocacy group Farm Forward, is working to create a Real Time Farms– esque online buying guide featuring animal, farm worker and environmental ratings for every poultry producer in the country. Free to use via smartphone, tablet and computer, the guide will help combat the secrecy of factory farm poultry production by providing consumers with easily-accessible, real-time information.

As Executive Director of Farm Forward, Buying Poultry Co-founder Ben Goldsmith was constantly being asked for the best option for finding alternatives to factory farming. But there simply wasn’t an easy-to-use nationwide guide. Farm Forward polled its newsletter subscribers and found that 90% percent of carnivores would “definitely” use the guide. And so they decided to tackle the poultry transparency beast themselves. For the past four years they have been working with high-welfare poultry farmers and animal welfare experts to create the beginnings of the site.

To make this comprehensive project a reality, the team has launched a Kickstarter Campaign to raise $40,000. To date, they’ve secured nearly half and have just under 40 days to go. If they reach their goal, the money raised will go towards site design and development, building and programming the massive database, paying for servers, and an eventual API. Though they are raising money through multiple sources, Goldsmith says they believe kickstarter is great source of support because their product is catered towards “tech-savvy, contentious consumers” who are “likely familiar with kickstarter and hungry for more transparency in the food they consume.”

Buying Poultry hopes to connect good farmers with consumers while bringing accountability back to the poultry industry. If executed, the project will empower conscious consumers with the information they need to make the best choices for themselves, farmed animals and the planet.

Check out their in depth POULTRY PRODUCTION INFOGRAPHIC