PINE MANOR FARMS
Pine Manor Farms is a unique brand of Miller Poultry. At Pine Manor Farms, they watch over the entire process of hatching, raising and processing of their chickens to ensure that their high standards and quality are maintained the entire time. Pine Manor Farms chickens are verified by Where Food Comes From, Inc. to meet the Non-GMO Project verification and Source Verification standards, and all products are air-chilled prior to packaging to ensure the best tasting, safest Pine Manor chicken possible.
Who is Pine Manor?
Pine Manor Farms is a brand of Miller Poultry
Miller Poultry is a small, family-owned company located in and around Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. Miller has engaged in numerous verification programs to ensure that their Pine Manor Farms chickens are fed a diet without any antibiotics, by-products, or GMOs. All Pine Manor Farms is Non-GMO Project verified, and a segment of the brand is Certified Organic. Not to mention, all Pine Manor chicken is air chilled, ensuring the best tasting, safest product possible.
Verifications
Pine Manor Farms chickens are raised to meet a variety of third-party animal care, wellbeing and production standards. Watch and read to learn more!
To start, each of the 140+ farms that raise birds for the Pine Manor brand are audited by Where Food Comes From, Inc. to meet the Non-GMO Project verified standard, indicating that Pine Manor chickens are only fed non-GMO feeds. To achieve this, Where Food Comes From, Inc. conducts annual audits of the farms and feed manufacturing facilities and requires significant product testing to confirm all feeds meet the Non-GMO Project requirements.
If it’s Certified Organic chicken you’re looking for, you can find that under the Pine Manor Farms brand as well! Pine Manor dedicates a portion of their farms to organic production to continue to meet the growing demand for organically produced food. As a result, no matter what you’re looking for, there is a good chance you’ll find it in Pine Manor Farms chicken.
Quick Facts
Labels can be confusing! So let’s take a quick look at what goes into making Pine Manor what it is.
Feedstuffs. All Pine Manor Farms birds are fed an all-vegetarian diet made up primarily of locally-produced corn and soy grains. 100% of the feed is verified to be Antibiotic-Free and Non-GMO Project Verified, and, like all chicken produced in the United States, is also free of any added hormones. Pine Manor also has multiple Certified Organic locations that raise birds specifically for their Organic chicken line. Watch to learn more!
Our Farms. Over 140 farms raise chickens for the Pine Manor Farms brand. All of them are family-owned operations located near Pine Manor’s home base in Orland, Indiana. Over 90% of Pine Manor Farms locations are owned and managed by Amish families. Chicks are hatched at the Miller Poultry hatchery, and then placed on farms when they are just a few days old. Watch to learn more about the Miller family and how their culture drives the Pine Manor Farms brand. Air Chilled. Traditionally, chicken is chilled in water. However, Pine Manor chicken is air chilled. The air chilling process utilizes a large cooler of air that circulates cold air throughout the room sealing in the flavor, keeping the chicken moist and tender when packaged. It is also believed that air-chilled chicken is cleaner, with less of a chance of cross contamination due to the use of air cooling and not large water baths. Taste, tenderness and added safety all in one step!
What is Non-GMO?
Pine Manor Farms recently gained approval to the Non-GMO Project standard. But, what does that mean? First of all, let’s define what a GMO is. A GMO, or genetically modified organism, is an animal, plant or bacteria whose genetic material has been manipulated by adding or removing genes from another organism to turn on or off different traits. So, for example, if you want a more drought resistant crop, you add a gene from a more drought tolerant plant species, and you get a GMO version of that crop that is now better suited for a drier climate.
In livestock and poultry, the focus on GMOs, or Genetically Modified Organisms, isn’t about the animal itself, it is about what they eat. It’s not common practice to genetically modify animals, but the feeds they consume tend to be crops that are typically grown from GMO seeds. As a result, Non-GMO Project verification of chickens is all about looking at what they eat!
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Focus on Feed. To be Non-GMO Project Verified, 100% of the feedstuffs consumed by Pine Manor Farms chickens must be audited. This includes traceability back to where they were planted, grown and harvested and ensuring that those seeds were sourced from non-GMO suppliers.
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Lots of Testing. The majority of chicken feed is corn and soy, both of which are considered to be at a high risk of coming from GMO seeds. As a result, not only is the traceability of the feeds important, but they also must be tested to confirm that there is no presence of GMOs.
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Standard Operating Procedures. It sounds boring, but paperwork and process is everything when it comes to Non-GMO verification. There are very specific requirements around documenting processes, from transport of feed, to batching and testing, making Standard Operating Procedures critical to a farms success.
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Facility Audits. Once all of the work is done on the sourcing, process and testing side, it then needs to be confirmed with an onsite facility audit.
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Oversight, oversight, oversight. Verification is not a one-time process. It takes constant upkeep, oversight and an annual renewal process. Each year Pine Manor Farms must prove that they continue to maintain the correct processes and procedures to be Non-GMO Project Verified.
Watch here to get Pine Manor’s take on why they have engaged in Non-GMO Project Verification. To learn more about the Non-GMO Project, visit www.nongmoproject.org.
Download our Non-GMO process handout here.
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