U.S. consumers are increasingly making food choices with animal welfare and climate change in mind: either opting for plant-based products, or searching for more humanely and sustainably produced meat, eggs and dairy. For the past five years, the ASPCA has connected these concerned consumers with more humane alternatives through our Shop With Your Heart program, offering a Grocery List of plant-based and animal welfare-certified items, a food label guide and a local farm directory. Now, we’ve collaborated on a new way for food shoppers to make informed choices that move our food system away from the cruelty of factory farming.

Consciously is a web browser extension that offers instant information about brands’ policies and practices to people shopping online on Amazon^® or Whole Foods Market^®. Consciously has launched two new social causes using data from our Shop With Your Heart Grocery List. 

Here’s how it works:

• When online shoppers add the Consciously extension to their browser and select a product on Amazon or Whole Foods, a small box appears in the top right corner of the browser, sharing plant-based and animal welfare information on the brand. 
• If the manufacturer is not known to be plant-based or certified by one of the three animal-welfare certifications that the ASPCA recognizes, Consciously shows recommendations for similar products that are plant-based or welfare-certified. 

Learn More

This new animal-welfare filter is just the latest category of information Consciously users can identify about products; others include whether brands are cruelty-free (not tested on animals), made in the USA, Black-owned, women-owned or a small business.

The addition of this kind of transparency around farming practices empowers consumers to make choices that align with their values and, in turn, encourages companies to adopt holistic welfare standards and independent verification of those practices. To date, we have worked with over 200 companies to attain commitments to welfare certification or other improvements for farmed animals. 

Download the free Consciously browser extension to find out how some of your favorite products stack up on animal welfare and other issues, and explore more resources for conscientious food shopping within our Shop With Your Heart program.