Consciously Shopping Tool Adds New Animal Welfare and Plant-Based Causes to Help the Public Make Better Choices for Farm Animals

Los Gatos, CA – Consciously today announced that it has worked with the ASPCA’s^® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals^®) Shop With Your Heart^® program to provide consumers shopping online through Amazon or Whole Foods Market with instant data-driven information on whether a food brand is plant-based or meaningfully verified for animal welfare. The Animal Welfare Institute is also an endorsing collaborator of this cause, which joins five other issues (cruelty-free, made in the USA, small business, women-owned, and Black-owned) already highlighted by Consciously’s browser extension. 

Informed by data from the ASPCA’s Shop With Your Heart program, which was launched in 2016 to inform consumers, food businesses and lawmakers about market-based solutions that will improve the lives of the nearly 10 billion animals raised for food in the U.S. each year, Consciously’s browser extension automatically pops up when shoppers view a food brand that is plant-based or has a meaningful welfare certification from a third-party recognized by the ASPCA. If the brand does not meet these criteria, the extension will share a more humane alternative if available, highlighting plant-based and higher-welfare animal products as recommended substitutions.

“We’re thrilled to launch our animal welfare and plant-based causes,” said Kim Pieper, founder and CEO of Consciously. “The ASPCA and the Animal Welfare Institute are trusted leaders in animal welfare, and with their guidance, we’re confident that our browser extension will help the growing number of Americans who are committed to improving farmed animals’ lives through their food purchases.”

According to ASPCA data, 76 percent of consumers say they are concerned about the welfare of animals raised for food. This tool will make it easier for them to make choices aligned with their values. Additionally, per Packaged Facts’ 2020 report Vegan, Vegetarian & Flexitarian Consumers, more than one-third (36 percent) of U.S. adults are now reducing their intake of animal products by following a flexitarian diet that only occasionally includes meat, eggs and dairy in addition to the eight percent who identify as vegetarian or vegan. One-third (31 percent) of consumers are trying to limit their meat intake and opting for plant-based alternatives instead, per Mintel’s Plant-Based Protein U.S. Report.

Consciously has long committed to providing information on various animal-welfare issues, with animal testing as its first cause in this area. By expanding the scope of animal-focused causes on its browser extension platform, Consciously now allows more shoppers to make decisions that will help to improve conditions for farmed animals raised for food each year in the U.S., including billions of cows, pigs, and chickens.

"This exciting addition of farm animal welfare and plant-based guidelines into the Consciously platform will help a growing number of concerned consumers make decisions that move our food system away from the cruelty of factory farming,” said Nancy Roulston, senior director of corporate policy and animal science, ASPCA Farm Animal Welfare. "The ASPCA’s Shop With Your Heart program was designed to help animal-conscious shoppers navigate confusing, loosely regulated, often misleading food labels, and we’re thrilled to partner with Consciously to reach more people who are hungry for this kind of transparency.”

“The Animal Welfare Institute is excited to partner with Consciously to promote food choices that are better for animals and the environment and backed by independent certification,” said Dena Jones, director of AWI’s farm animal program. “Multiple surveys show that compassionate consumers are fed up with misleading welfare claims on factory-farmed meat, dairy, and eggs. Consciously helps empower consumers to make decisions consistent with their values regarding how animals raised for food should be treated.”

To learn more about the ASPCA’s Shop With Your Heart program, please visit ASPCA.org/ShopWithYourHeart. For more information about Consciously and to get it for free, click here. For more information about the Animal Welfare Institute, please visit AWIonline.org.