Safeway is proud to be an industry leader in animal welfare. We believe animals should be raised, transported and processed using procedures that are clean, safe and free from cruelty, abuse or neglect. Diligently partnering with independent animal welfare experts, Safeway utilizes industry best practices, ensuring that farm animals are treated humanely at every step from farm to market. Safeway’s dedication to animal welfare includes an audit program conducted by a rotating team of internal and independent auditors. Since 2001, Safeway has maintained a professional association with a number of well-recognized experts in animal welfare. The company’s Animal Welfare Council is composed of both Safeway experts and a number of animal welfare scientists from top universities, including Colorado State University and the University of California, Davis. The Council's broad mandate is to provide guidance and counsel to the company on matters relating to the humane treatment of animals in the food production system.

The following are policies we have adopted to help ensure animal welfare:

• We give buying preference to poultry suppliers that use, or agree to switch to, controlled atmosphere stunning, a more humane processing method than conventional methods.

• We give buying preference to pork producers that are phasing out gestation stalls used to confine sows. Moreover, we have pledged to incrementally increase our purchases from these suppliers.

• We are increasing our assortment of cage-free eggs. During 2007, we launched our own private-label cage-free eggs under the Lucerne^® brand. In addition, we are giving buying preference to egg producers that are phasing out battery-cage confinement systems for laying hens.