Summertime usually means we’re planning road trips and heading out to unknown destinations for fun and exciting adventures. As you’re driving down the highway, have you noticed trucks carrying cattle or pigs? Ever wonder how long they’ve been on the open road? While the preferred method of transport may have changed over the years from railcars to trucks, since the 1870s most farm animals have been transported extremely long distances to reach processing plants.
In an effort to regulate transport duration, the Twenty-Eight Hour Law was initially passed by the federal government in 1873 and then amended in 1994. Basically, the law requires cattle, sheep, and pigs to be unloaded and rested if their journey is more than 28 consecutive hours (or up to 36 hours if an exception is requested). I’m sure you can appreciate that even with this law in place, that’s a long time to be on a truck!
In an effort to curb long transport times and address other farm animal welfare concerns, Whole Foods Market® requires all of our pig, chicken and beef cattle farms and ranches to be third-party inspected and certified to Global Animal Partnership’s (GAP) 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Program opens in a new tab. The program includes an entire section dedicated to minimizing stress associated with transport.
The GAP standards opens in a new tab for cattle and pigs are very detailed and cover everything from transport duration, vehicle condition and stocking density to documentation, record keeping and emergency plans. Some standards are the same for all steps in the program. For example, all ramps and floors must be designed to minimize slipping; the driver must be able to inspect all animals on the truck; and unhealthy, injured or non-ambulatory animals are prohibited from being loaded onto the truck.
Some steps have specific requirements. For example, at Step 4, cattle can’t be transported more than 16 hours and pigs longer than 8 hours, and GAP requires that these trips cannot be extended by unloading and resting animals mid-journey. At the highest Step level, our Step 5+ opens in a new tab pigs spend their entire lives on the farm and never once get on a truck!
Although we do not have Step 5+ cattle at Whole Foods Market yet, we are encouraging our vendors to consider using either a mobile processing plant or building a plant on-site to meet this standard.
Maximum Transport Duration by Step
Cattle:
Step 1 - 25 hours
Step 2 - 16 hours
Step 3 - There is no Step 3 for cattle.
Step 4 - 16 hours
Step 5 - 8 hours
Step 5+ - No transport allowed
Pigs:
Step 1 - 14 hours
Step 2 - 8 hours
Step 3 - 8 hours
Step 4 - 8 hours
Step 5 - 8 hours
Step 5+ - No transport allowed
While it’s hard to imagine a day when all farm animals won’t need to be transported, GAP’s 5-Step Program has taken the road less traveled and sets strict criteria for cattle and pig producers to follow — keeping travel safe, comfortable and as quick as possible.
Tell us what you think of GAP’s 5-Step transport standards!
