Dive Brief:

• Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage says it will no longer sell any dairy product that comes from a "confinement" dairy. 
• The retailer, which operates about 90 stores, created a detailed list of what it does, and does not, consider acceptable behavior by its dairy suppliers. Among the banned activities are the use of GMO crops in animal feed.
• The move follows a series of videos depicting cruelty at dairy operations, and a decision by rival Whole Foods to move toward GMO-free dairy products. 

Dive Insight:

As mentioned before, Natural Grocers takes an unusual, community-and-education-based approach to retail. Key to Natural Grocers' marketing, and its very identity, is its insistence on being completely transparent about what it will, and will not accept in food. Everyone who shops at NGVC is familiar with its "What we won't sell and why list."

Given the number of cases of animal cruelty that have been uncovered in recent months, we have no doubt that shoppers at NGVC will appreciate the retailer's latest addition to that list.