What Food Labels Actually Mean
You've probably heard about Food, Inc, the documentary about the United States' corrupt and inefficient agricultural system. That documentary is based on a book written by Michael Pollan called The Omnivore's Dilemma. One of the first concepts introduced in The Omnivore's Dilemma is something he calls "Supermarket Pastoral". Basically, huge industrial companies play dress up with their products and pretend they are the small, local, animal-loving farms that everyone wants them to be. The 'supermarket' in 'Supermarket Pastoral' connotes the industrial and far-from-pastoral food system, while the 'pastoral' describes industrial food companies' attempts to appear as the green grass red barn farm everyone recognizes and romanticizes. All of this is intended to make consumers associate the product with an ethical farm. Huge Industrial corporations put pictures of happy chickens and shining sun on their packages of chicken that was raised in a feedlot and has never seen the sun. Companies litter the wrappers with words like 'natural', 'organic', 'free-range', 'cage-free', 'grass-fed', 'humanely raised', and 'sustainably grown'. Some of whic
h - don't get me wrong - are actually good things. But they mean a lot less than we think they do.
ORGANIC
Organic food is grown without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. That's it. Thats all it means. In the words of the USDA, "Produce can be called organic if it’s certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest". The USDA says that packaged foods that indicate they are “made with organic [specific ingredient or food group],” contain at least 70% organically produced ingredients. Organic meat is "fed 100% organic feed and forage, and not administered antibiotics or hormones."
Organic food is better for the environment than non-organic food because it does not use petrochemicals (fertilizer and pesticide created with fossil fuels). Petrochemicals can seep through the soil of the area, and can potentially harm consumers (like Alar). But from a production and distribution standpoint, organic food is just as bad as any other food produced in the industrial food system. Organic is good, but local is better.
NATURAL
There are some contradicting definitions of this claim. To the FDA, 'natural' means nothing. Their website says, "From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances."
However, in their document on food labeling, the FDA says the requirements to label a food product as 'natural' are that the product contains no "artificial ingredients, coloring ingredients or chemical preservatives, and the product and its ingredients are not more than minimally processed." Fresh meat and poultry of course does not include any of these ingredients and therefore automatically qualifies for permission to use the term "natural".
NO ANTIBIOTICS USED
This gets complicated. The FDA has an entire document dedicated to food labeling* and what each label means. According to that, the phrase "No antibiotics used" or "Raised without antibiotics" means "Livestock have never received antibiotics from birth to slaughter."
But why is this label even on our food? An animal on antibiotics is less likely to have a disease, right? It turns out labels about antibiotics are only there because they say something (not much) about how an animal was raised. The FDA says "For the past few decades, antibiotic use has been one indicator of intensive animal confinement." This is because when animals are kept in close quarters, they are at a higher risk of catching a disease. Antibiotics allow animals to be kept close together without becoming sick and therefore unusable.
There are some loopholes with these claims. One of the FDA's labels is "No detectable antibiotic residue" which "would allow a special labeling claim to be used on products from animals who received sub therapeutic antibiotics, as long as the antibiotics were withdrawn the required length of time before slaughter." This claim could mislead consumers, and do little to protect animals.
CAGE FREE
EGGS: The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) defines Cage Free eggs as "meaning the birds have never been confined to a cage." Cage Free shelled eggs include the "confinement of laying hens in a building, room or open area with unlimited access to food and water, and with freedom to roam within these areas." A cage free egg was layed in a dark, crowded, warehouse feedlot by a chicken who has never seen the sun.
POULTRY: This is an example of how fishy the guidelines for some certifications can be. For cage free poultry, the farmer writes a "brief description of the birds' housing conditions, which is then reviewed by the FSIS to ensure the birds have "continuous free access to the outdoors for a significant portion of their lives." Practically speaking, that means nothing. Here is a video of Tyson's "cage free" hens, and here is a video of Perdue's "USDA Process Certified" hens, which are raised cage free, on a vegetarian diet, fed no animal by-products, fed no antibiotics ever, and humanely raised (the last two will be defined later on in this essay).
FREE RANGE
EGGS: FDA says "For 'free range' and 'free roaming', the cage free criteria apply and, in addition, the hens must be allowed access to the outside for a significant portion of their life or production cycle. The terms 'access' and 'significant' are not defined. There are no limits on the number and size of exits, size of the outdoor area, animal density or flock size." Organic Valley gave a video tour of their chicken farm in which animals were given access to the outdoors. These chickens are more humanely treated than others, but it is still unclear how long chickens were given access to the outdoors.
POULTRY: Like the 'cage free' qualifications, poultry producers are required to submit a brief description of the birds' living conditions to the FSIS Labeling Consumer Protection Staff. The description is reviewed to ensure the birds have "continuous free access to the outdoors for a significant portion of their lives."
LIVESTOCK: 'Free range', 'free roaming', 'pasture raised', and 'pasture grown' livestock also need "continuous, free access to pasture for a significant portion of their lives. (The term "significant" is not defined.) Feedlot-raised livestock or any livestock who were confined and fed for any portion of their lives are not amenable to these terms." Pigs must have "continuous, free access to pasture" for at least 80% of their production cycle.
GRASS-FED
This one is actually a good label to buy by. The USDA says that to label meat as 'grass fed', "Grass, green or range pasture, or forage shall be 80% or more of the primary energy source throughout the animal's life cycle." This means the animals (usually cows) are allowed to graze real grass for food. This is good for a number of reasons. Grass-feeding cows allows them the option of choice. Where we see a field of grass, cows see many different plants that vary in nutritional content. Allowing a cow to choose which types of grass it eats day-to-day means the cow will eat what it needs. This reduces the need for antibiotics because cows are not kept in as close quarters as they would have been in a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation aka warehouse). Grass-feeding also disperses animal waste throughout the pasture, giving it a chance to soak into the soil and prevent the ever-growing pile of shit on top of this country.
HUMANELY RAISED
It turns out this isn't actually a USDA-approved term. To use this term, livestock/poultry producers must provide a description of what they think makes their animal's living conditions 'humane'. This may mean they were raised in pasture or in bedded pens. However, the USDA does accept third-party claims in a certification program. The USDA has approved third-party certifications like "Certified Humane" and "Free-Farmed", as well as the "Animal Care Certified" program of the United Egg Producers. If you see any of these phrases on a package of food, it means that the product met a series of USDA-approved standards, but was not approved by the USDA itself.
CONCLUSION
Most of these restrictions and definitions have very shifty verification processes that do not require USDA to see the animals' conditions or to make their own judgements. Some have no verification process at all. Rules are bent in all directions just to get these words on packages. This alone is enough to prove just how much industrial companies want to cover up their secrets. While some certification processes for food packaging claims are stricter, the claim may not mean much for the animal.
This is all very disheartening news. Fortunately, there is something we can all do about it. Something we do every day: buy food. You can vote with your dollar. Every penny you put towards industrial farming practices shows your support of their current system. Put your money where your values are. Most criticism of organic, local, or grass-fed food is of the high price. The price is certainly higher than food from the industrial - and quite chemical - food system, but it is actually the price that matches the costs. It takes a lot of work to produce food in the industrial food system. Instead of pricing products so they equal the costs it took to produce them, food companies drive down the price of the final product and externalize the costs into poor working conditions, poor wages for farmers, and damage to the environment.
Local and organic foods are sold at a price that is closer to the actual cost of the product. Paying for those foods is a vote for better food, and a boycott of a corrupt food system. Next time you walk into a supermarket, don't let the "Supermarket Pastoral" posters of happy cows and collages of food labels fool you.
*this source was used for all quotes in the following sections: NO ANTIBIOTICS USED, CAGE FREE, FREE RANGE, GRASS-FED, HUMANELY RAISED
h - don't get me wrong - are actually good things. But they mean a lot less than we think they do.
ORGANIC
Organic food is grown without the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. That's it. Thats all it means. In the words of the USDA, "Produce can be called organic if it’s certified to have grown on soil that had no prohibited substances applied for three years prior to harvest". The USDA says that packaged foods that indicate they are “made with organic [specific ingredient or food group],” contain at least 70% organically produced ingredients. Organic meat is "fed 100% organic feed and forage, and not administered antibiotics or hormones."
Organic food is better for the environment than non-organic food because it does not use petrochemicals (fertilizer and pesticide created with fossil fuels). Petrochemicals can seep through the soil of the area, and can potentially harm consumers (like Alar). But from a production and distribution standpoint, organic food is just as bad as any other food produced in the industrial food system. Organic is good, but local is better.
NATURAL
There are some contradicting definitions of this claim. To the FDA, 'natural' means nothing. Their website says, "From a food science perspective, it is difficult to define a food product that is 'natural' because the food has probably been processed and is no longer the product of the earth. That said, FDA has not developed a definition for use of the term natural or its derivatives. However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances."
However, in their document on food labeling, the FDA says the requirements to label a food product as 'natural' are that the product contains no "artificial ingredients, coloring ingredients or chemical preservatives, and the product and its ingredients are not more than minimally processed." Fresh meat and poultry of course does not include any of these ingredients and therefore automatically qualifies for permission to use the term "natural".
NO ANTIBIOTICS USED
This gets complicated. The FDA has an entire document dedicated to food labeling* and what each label means. According to that, the phrase "No antibiotics used" or "Raised without antibiotics" means "Livestock have never received antibiotics from birth to slaughter."
But why is this label even on our food? An animal on antibiotics is less likely to have a disease, right? It turns out labels about antibiotics are only there because they say something (not much) about how an animal was raised. The FDA says "For the past few decades, antibiotic use has been one indicator of intensive animal confinement." This is because when animals are kept in close quarters, they are at a higher risk of catching a disease. Antibiotics allow animals to be kept close together without becoming sick and therefore unusable.
There are some loopholes with these claims. One of the FDA's labels is "No detectable antibiotic residue" which "would allow a special labeling claim to be used on products from animals who received sub therapeutic antibiotics, as long as the antibiotics were withdrawn the required length of time before slaughter." This claim could mislead consumers, and do little to protect animals.
CAGE FREE
EGGS: The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) defines Cage Free eggs as "meaning the birds have never been confined to a cage." Cage Free shelled eggs include the "confinement of laying hens in a building, room or open area with unlimited access to food and water, and with freedom to roam within these areas." A cage free egg was layed in a dark, crowded, warehouse feedlot by a chicken who has never seen the sun.
POULTRY: This is an example of how fishy the guidelines for some certifications can be. For cage free poultry, the farmer writes a "brief description of the birds' housing conditions, which is then reviewed by the FSIS to ensure the birds have "continuous free access to the outdoors for a significant portion of their lives." Practically speaking, that means nothing. Here is a video of Tyson's "cage free" hens, and here is a video of Perdue's "USDA Process Certified" hens, which are raised cage free, on a vegetarian diet, fed no animal by-products, fed no antibiotics ever, and humanely raised (the last two will be defined later on in this essay).
FREE RANGE
EGGS: FDA says "For 'free range' and 'free roaming', the cage free criteria apply and, in addition, the hens must be allowed access to the outside for a significant portion of their life or production cycle. The terms 'access' and 'significant' are not defined. There are no limits on the number and size of exits, size of the outdoor area, animal density or flock size." Organic Valley gave a video tour of their chicken farm in which animals were given access to the outdoors. These chickens are more humanely treated than others, but it is still unclear how long chickens were given access to the outdoors.
POULTRY: Like the 'cage free' qualifications, poultry producers are required to submit a brief description of the birds' living conditions to the FSIS Labeling Consumer Protection Staff. The description is reviewed to ensure the birds have "continuous free access to the outdoors for a significant portion of their lives."
GRASS-FED
This one is actually a good label to buy by. The USDA says that to label meat as 'grass fed', "Grass, green or range pasture, or forage shall be 80% or more of the primary energy source throughout the animal's life cycle." This means the animals (usually cows) are allowed to graze real grass for food. This is good for a number of reasons. Grass-feeding cows allows them the option of choice. Where we see a field of grass, cows see many different plants that vary in nutritional content. Allowing a cow to choose which types of grass it eats day-to-day means the cow will eat what it needs. This reduces the need for antibiotics because cows are not kept in as close quarters as they would have been in a CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation aka warehouse). Grass-feeding also disperses animal waste throughout the pasture, giving it a chance to soak into the soil and prevent the ever-growing pile of shit on top of this country.
HUMANELY RAISED
It turns out this isn't actually a USDA-approved term. To use this term, livestock/poultry producers must provide a description of what they think makes their animal's living conditions 'humane'. This may mean they were raised in pasture or in bedded pens. However, the USDA does accept third-party claims in a certification program. The USDA has approved third-party certifications like "Certified Humane" and "Free-Farmed", as well as the "Animal Care Certified" program of the United Egg Producers. If you see any of these phrases on a package of food, it means that the product met a series of USDA-approved standards, but was not approved by the USDA itself.
CONCLUSION
Most of these restrictions and definitions have very shifty verification processes that do not require USDA to see the animals' conditions or to make their own judgements. Some have no verification process at all. Rules are bent in all directions just to get these words on packages. This alone is enough to prove just how much industrial companies want to cover up their secrets. While some certification processes for food packaging claims are stricter, the claim may not mean much for the animal.
This is all very disheartening news. Fortunately, there is something we can all do about it. Something we do every day: buy food. You can vote with your dollar. Every penny you put towards industrial farming practices shows your support of their current system. Put your money where your values are. Most criticism of organic, local, or grass-fed food is of the high price. The price is certainly higher than food from the industrial - and quite chemical - food system, but it is actually the price that matches the costs. It takes a lot of work to produce food in the industrial food system. Instead of pricing products so they equal the costs it took to produce them, food companies drive down the price of the final product and externalize the costs into poor working conditions, poor wages for farmers, and damage to the environment.
Local and organic foods are sold at a price that is closer to the actual cost of the product. Paying for those foods is a vote for better food, and a boycott of a corrupt food system. Next time you walk into a supermarket, don't let the "Supermarket Pastoral" posters of happy cows and collages of food labels fool you.
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