Kinder MEAT

If you can't break the meat habit, at least you can lessen the suffering that puts it on your table. That's the philosophy behind the Winnipeg Humane Society's program to certify local animal produce (including dairy products and eggs) that comes from creatures raised more kindly than current law mandates. The practice has caught on big in England, but it's a first for Canada.

For a small annual fee, the Society will inspect farms to ensure that some of the cruelest practices are not in use, for example: confining chickens in tiny battery cages or pregnant pigs in sow crates or dairy cattle in tie stalls. Growth hormones and antibiotics to grossly accelerate an animal's growth at the expense of its health (and public health) will also be forbidden.

"We . . . hope to have product on the shelf in the fall and have had several dozen farmers contact us about the program," says Humane Society Executive Director Vicki Burns. Look for a smiley-faced WHS-certified logo on products that pass muster.