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G.A.P. Certification

An overview of G.A.P. Certification, and how it fits within HowGood’s Animal Welfare scoring system.

Jemima Snow avatar
Written by Jemima Snow
Updated over a year ago

Animal Welfare - why is it important?

Animal-based food products are an important source of nutrition for many people around the world. As the global population increases and the middle class expands in developing countries, the demand for meat and dairy is only set to increase. It is estimated that worldwide, more than 70 billion animals are slaughtered for food each year. The majority of these animals are farmed under poor animal welfare standards, which pose a serious threat to public health, the environment and the food supply system, not to mention the animals’ well-being alone.

According to the Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), 63% of consumers look for labels that identify how the animal was raised when purchasing meat. Furthermore, 46% of Americans say that food product sustainability claims have a direct influence on their purchase decisions, and 93% of consumers say it is important for brands and manufacturers to provide detailed information about what’s in a food product, and how it is made.

What is G.A.P. Certification?

The Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) Animal Welfare Certified program assesses the welfare of livestock animals on-farm, during transport, at collection points and at slaughter. It is a multi-tiered labeling program that signals to consumers how the animals were raised. The higher the tier number, the closer the animal’s environment mimics a natural environment.

The program provides standards for producers that have been developed specifically for 10 major livestock animal groups, taking into account different production systems and geographic climates:

  • Beef cattle

  • Bison

  • Chickens

  • Dairy cattle

  • Farmed salmon

  • Goats

  • Laying hens

  • Pigs

  • Sheep

  • Turkey

It is intended to provide a framework for continuous improvement in animal welfare, with species-specific improvements that producers can make in order to increase their G.A.P. Certification tier.

What animal welfare considerations does G.A.P. Certification address?

In general, the G.A.P. Certified program assesses a range of animal welfare considerations, which are customized by species but fall under a number of categories:

  • Handling

  • Animal diet

  • Housing environment

  • Outdoor and/or pasture access

  • Ability to engage in natural behavior

  • Physical alterations

  • Breeding and raising of genetically modified species

  • Hazard management

  • Use of on-farm euthanasia

  • Transport and slaughter

How are the G.A.P. Certification Levels defined?

The G.A.P. Certified program comprises six levels of welfare standards, ranging from G.A.P Level 1 on the lower end, to G.A.P. Level 5+ on the highest end of the spectrum.

Each set of tiered standards—from Step 1 to Step 5+—has its own species-specific requirements, which must be met before certification to that particular Step level can be assigned:

Certification Level

Example

Level 1 - Base Certification

Animals live in a permanent housing structure and are provided the space to express natural behavior.

Pigs

  • No farrowing or gestation crates

  • No tail docking or teeth clipping

  • Castration must occur before 10 days of age

  • Space required to move freely

  • Bedding must be available at all times

Beef cattle

  • Cattle on pasture except for finishing

  • Protection from extreme weather

  • Pasture maintained with minimum 50% vegetation cover

  • Weaning minimum 6 months

  • Castration maximum 6 months

  • Maximum 25 hours transport time

Chicken

  • No outdoor access required

  • Minimum space requirements (6.0 lbs/ft2)

  • Some enrichments required (ie. straw bales)

  • Minimum 6 hours darkness per day required for rest

  • Bright barns required (minimum 50 lux)

  • Maximum 6 hours transport time

Level 2 - Enriched Environment

Animals live in an enriched indoor environment.

Pigs

All standards in Level 1 achieved, plus:

  • Environmental enrichments are provided to encourage expression of natural behavior and decrease expression of abnormal behaviors, such as tail biting.

Beef cattle

All standards in Level 1 achieved, plus:

  • Feedlots must have shade and other enrichments

  • Castration maximum 3 months

  • Maximum 16 hours transport time

Chicken

All standards in Level 1 achieved, plus:

  • Two additional forms of enrichments required

  • Natural light required in barns, via windows

Level 3 - Outdoor Access

Animals remain in an enriched indoor environment, but have seasonal or intermittent access to outdoors.

Pigs

All standards in Levels 1-2 achieved, plus:

  • Must have continuous, unobstructed access to the outdoors during daylight hours

  • Outdoor access does not have to be pasture (concrete pad or dry lot)

  • Enrichments are provided both indoors and outdoors

Beef cattle

(No Level 3 standard for beef cattle)

Chickens

All standards in Levels 1-2 achieved, plus:

  • Seasonal outdoor access required by 4 weeks of age

  • Outdoor shade and enrichments required

Level 4 - Pasture Raised

Animals live primarily on pasture, or may be housed with continuous access to the outdoors.

Pigs

All standards in Levels 1-3 achieved, plus:

  • Must live continuously on pasture with access to shelter

  • Pasture includes rangeland, grassland, planted pastures, managed pastures, wooded areas, harvested crop areas and any other land that provides access to vegetation.

Beef cattle

All standards in Levels 1-2 achieved, plus:

  • Cattle on pasture for 75% of life

  • No feedlots permitted

Chickens

All standards in Levels 1-3 achieved, plus:

  • Daily access to pasture from 4 weeks of age

  • Pasture maintained with a minimum 50% vegetative cover

  • Specialty breeds for outdoor production

Level 5 - Animal Centered

Animals live continuously on pasture and may only be housed during extreme weather conditions.

Pigs

All standards in Levels 1-4 achieved, plus:

  • No castration, nose-ringing or ear notching

Beef cattle

All standards in Levels 1-4 achieved, plus:

  • Cattle live on pasture their entire life

  • Pasture maintained with a minimum 75% vegetative cover

  • Fenceline or 2-stage weaning required, minimum 8 months

  • No physical alterations allowed

  • Maximum 8 hours transport time

Chickens

All standards in Levels 1-4 achieved, plus:

  • Requires breeds with higher welfare outcomes

  • Continuous outdoor living on pasture by 4 weeks of age

  • Ability to perch

  • Pasture maintained with a minimum 75% vegetative cover

Level 5+ - Entire Life on Farm

Animals live continuously on pasture and may only be housed during extreme weather conditions. Animals are slaughtered on-farm.

Pigs

All standards in Levels 1-5 achieved, plus:

  • No transport time; entire life spent on farm

Beef cattle

All standards in Levels 1-5 achieved, plus:

  • Natural weaning required

  • No transport time; entire life spent on farm

Chickens

All standards in Level 1-5 achieved, plus:

  • Slower growing breeds have the ability to perch

  • No transport time; entire life spent on farm

How are the standards audited?

As the standard-setter, Global Animal Partnership does not conduct audits nor make Step-level certification decisions. Authorized, third-party certification companies perform the audits and issue Step certificates, as appropriate.

How many farms are G.A.P. Certified?

More than 4000 farms throughout the United States participate in the G.A.P Certified program, with the majority falling within Levels 1-3. Only a limited number of farms have achieved Levels 4, 5 or 5+.

As a product developer, how can I assess the ingredients in my product with regards to animal welfare standards?

HowGood’s Animal Welfare metric has been developed to incorporate the G.A.P. framework, and provides an ingredient-level assessment of the animal welfare standards associated with your product. It has been designed to provide consistent measurement of animal welfare standards across every animal species, where relevant, and the food system broadly.

HowGood’s Animal Welfare spectrum encompasses the full range of animal welfare standards that exist across different species of animals in the food system, and normalizes those standards on a scale from 1-10. G.A.P. Certification excludes the poorest animal welfare standards from its scoring system, requiring that animals raised under Level 1 Certified conditions are free from direct abuse, have at least one enrichment activity and meet minimum space, feed, water and transport requirements. The unfortunate reality is that within the animal agriculture industry, many animals are raised without these basic requirements met, and while these operations don’t qualify for G.A.P. Certification, they are captured at the lowest end of HowGood’s Animal Welfare spectrum.

Additionally, within the food system generally, there is a different set of conventional animal welfare standards per animal species, therefore the baseline score for what is considered “conventional” for each species differs within HowGood’s scoring system. At the lowest end of the spectrum, within scoring brackets 1-2 you will find conventional pork, whereas conventional broiler chickens achieve a higher score on the spectrum given that higher standards of welfare are required to produce acceptable chicken meat.

For this reason, the scoring attributed to Levels 1-5+ for G.A.P. Certification in HowGood’s scoring system is different for every species, but normalized within the full spectrum of animal welfare standards that exist in the industry.

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