OUR MORAL COMPASS

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• We only support ranchers who are committed to meaningful husbandry practices that prioritize the welfare of animals and the planet.

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• Of all animals raised for food in the US, 99% are done so in factory-farm environments, which we find appalling. Our goal is—and has always been—to partner with ranchers who truly use the most humane and sustainable methods. We want to help move the dial as much as possible to grow that 1%, because while we obviously love our pets, we also respect and care deeply about the lives of the animals who are sacrificed for food. We wrote a great blog post on this, check it out here.

 

• We are genuinely excited by the new movement around regenerative agriculture, of which several of our our vendors are pioneers. As we continually strive to do better, we will also prioritize these practices in seeking out future partnerships.   

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OUR VENDORS

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• We take great care in vetting our vendors and weigh multiple factors when choosing our ingredients, price only being one of them. Other things that really matter to us are quality (duh), place of origin, vendor communicativeness, and transparency.

 

• We have personal relationships with our ranchers and vendors and buy directly from them, rather than placing orders through distributors or middlemen.

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• We buy domestic. If it's impossible to find an ingredient from the US (and trust us, we do everything we can to find it), we look as close to home as possible, and we are happy to share that information with our customers.

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All vendors we work with provide detailed documentation, such as letters of guarantee, affidavits, certificates of analyses (COAs), as well as certificates of origin (COOs) in the rare instances when we need to source outside the US.​

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OUR PROTEIN SOURCES

 

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• Our 100% grass-fed beef comes from SunFed Ranch, a highly accountable California rancher who raises cattle for their entire lifespan. They are committed to regenerative agricultural practices and humane handling techniques developed by Dr. Temple Grandin. Fully grass feeding affords a better life for the animals and offers numerous health benefits, notably a much higher Omega-6:3 fatty acid ratio (3:1 in grass-fed vs. 20:1 in corn-fed cattle). No antibiotics or added hormones used. If you want to get to know them better, check out this great video.

 

• ​Our 100% grass-fed lamb comes from New Zealand, where grass-fed is the only way sheep are raised, and is rated as Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Step 4. While not as local as our other meats, we believe the quality, oversight, and availability of New Zealand lamb is unsurpassed. Lamb is a protein that is highly affected by seasonality and terroir, so we work very closely with our rancher to monitor the fat content and nutrient levels in our meat. No antibiotics or added hormones used.​

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• Since our inception in 2009, Evermore's supply chain has only included free-range, antibiotic-free (ABF) chicken and turkey. In addition, we are proud to officially sign on to the Better Chicken Commitment (BCC), a policy developed by animal welfare nonprofits across the United States. We have met—and exceeded—the housing and processing standards of Version 1 for years. All of our poultry continues to come from the highly respected and accountable Mary's Chicken and Mary's Turkey, based in California. Our chicken and turkey are Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.) Certified—G.A.P. 4 pasture-centric, slow-growth Heirloom chicken fed a non-GMO diet and a combination of G.A.P. 2 organic and free-range turkey fed a non-GMO diet. All chickens are processed using multi-stage controlled atmosphere stunning, a system widely considered more humane. (Note: Federal law prohibits the use of hormones in poultry, so all chicken and turkey are by definition "hormone-free"). To further demonstrate our commitment to all animals, our soon-to-come cat food turkey recipe will be certified and labeled by a meaningful animal welfare certification recognized by the ASPCA®’s Shop With Your Heart® program

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• We have long been committed to sourcing PASTURE-RAISED eggs and are firmly against housing laying hens in cages. Pasture-raised hens have access to open spaces, with room to roam, freedom to socialize and engage in natural behaviors. We are taking the additional step of working with Certified Humane to assure a better quality of life for the hens in our supply chain. You can read more about the benefits of pasture-raised eggs here.

 

other ingredients 

 

• After eggs (when looking at our ingredient lists), nothing comprises more than 7% of the total recipe. Even though they are not the star players, each ingredient has been carefully chosen for what it brings to the table (er, bowl) nutritionally. We take the sourcing of these ingredients as seriously as our protein sources.

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• All produce is certified organic and comes from California or the Pacific Northwest.​

 

• Oats and barley, both certified organic, come from the US or Canada, and together comprise 4.5% of our Beef and Chicken recipes. ​

 

• Our "fish oil" is MSC-certified wild Alaskan red pollock oil.

 

• We specifically use certified organic HIGH-LINOLEIC safflower oil—not the kind you buy in the store, which is high-oleic. This is a very important distinction, and we include it in our recipes only because linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid and must come from food. 

 

• Nutritional powerhouses pumpkin seeds and kelp are all certified organic. They come from Oregon and the North Atlantic, respectively.

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• Coming in at less than half a percent of any of our formulations, our supplement premix components come from the US and are blended in Washington state. Every aspect of the process involves rigorous testing. Our custom premix blend includes primarily eggshell calcium, with a small amount of zinc gluconate (a chelated form of zinc) to make up the small difference between what is naturally occurring and what AAFCO requires.
  (NOTE: As of April 2022, we have discontinued the inclusion of supplemental copper.)

 

• While we do not use pig products in current Evermore recipes (and, truthfully, have no plans to), we support initiatives that provide mother pigs freedom from the cruel confines of gestation and farrowing crates. 

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