New Rules On Feathers Take Wing

0

Geese raised for meat and feathers sometimes suffer on farms. But some apparel brands such as North Face don’t want their customers thinking about that when slipping on a new down-filled parka.

So Montebello’s Allied Feather & Down, a major supplier to North Face and other apparel companies, wants to assure clients its down comes from better-treated birds. The company helped create the new “responsible down standard,” a set of rules aimed at excluding down from mistreated fowl.

“I don’t want to say it’s a selling point, but it’s definitely a differentiator,” said Daniel Uretsky, Allied’s president. “It is a good selling feature, but we truly believe it is the right thing to do.”

Under the voluntary standard, companies can’t use feathers from birds that have been force-fed for the purposes of making foie gras. The standard also bans live plucking, a practice used by some down harvesters.

The new rules were put together by North Face and Textile Exchange, an O’Donnell, Texas, non-profit that supports sustainable practices, with input from other apparel companies.

Four Paws, an international animal welfare group based in Austria that also worked on the standard, said in August that the rules are a positive development, though it wants a few tougher measures, such as unannounced inspections of down producers.

For down to meet the new requirements, auditors must check every step of the supply chain, adding costs for Allied, Uretsky said. He estimates that the new rules will cost an extra $1 for every pound of down, which now sells for between $15 and $55 a pound.

He said his company has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars to follow the standard. For instance, Allied opened a five-person office in China to make sure producers there follow the rules.

Down hasn’t drawn the same kind of consumer criticism as fur has, but Uretsky said some customers do ask where Allied’s down comes from and he understands why North Face and other brands want to avoid any appearance of animal cruelty.

“We would get some questions, like, ‘How do I know the down isn’t coming from a foie gras bird?’” he said. “No company wants anything negative connected to their name.”

– Andrew Edwards

No posts to display