Peeling Back the Label!

Peeling Back the Label! By Taylor Stutz, Allie Misner, Amanda Mills and Carmen Lopez

To earn this label, foods must be produced without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, sludge, irradiation, or genetically modified seeds, according to the agency. • Ex: Cows must have access to pasture a minimum of 120 days per year • “100% Organic”: when 100% of the ingredients and methods are organic • “Organic”: when 95% or more of the ingredients/methods fit the bill • “Made with Organic”: 70% or more fit the bill • Cannot include official seal • No seal: 70% or less fit the bill

Certification that looks at economic, social, and environmental criteria • Farmers paid living wages and have safe working conditions • Child labor prohibited • Fair Trade premiums invested in community development • Ex: training and organic certification • Products with seal in the US: • Coffee, tea, herbs, cocoa, chocolate, fresh fruit, sugar, rice, and vanilla

Overseen by the Rainforest Alliance • Aims to reduce water pollution and soil erosion, protect human health, conserve wildlife habitat, improve livelihoods, and reduce waste • More than 84,500 farms (totaling ~1.8 million acres) – in South America, SE Asia, and Africa – have been Rainforest Alliance certified • Chief products: coffee, cocoa, tea, nuts, fruits

Requires certifiers to assess farm or ranch in five areas: • Soil and water conservation • Safe and fair working conditions • Limiting pesticide use and toxicity with integrated pest management • Animal welfare • Habitat conservation • Given high marks by industry • Products with this label are known to be of quality • 350 food producers certified • Grown by nearly 79% in last four years

Takes a whole farm approach • Requires foods to be produced organically, without use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, or animal by-products • Requires 10% of farm’s total land to be set aside for fostering biodiversity and the humane treatment of animals • Prohibits use of genetic engineering

Promotes a very specific form of sustainability not covered by the organic umbrella: • Protecting salmon streams in the Pacific Northwest from farm runoff, chemicals, and erosion • Often combined with USDA Organic to provide a “beyond organic” certification • To date: accredited more than 60,000 farm acres and more than 200 vineyards

Developed by Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center • Independently certifies organic shade-grown coffee • Provide important sanctuaries for migrating birds • Criteria: tree canopy height, plant diversity, shade coverage, and streamside plant borders

Endorsed by several animal welfare and food safety organizations • Including ASPCA • Focuses on humane animal care standards, birth through slaughter • “Animals must be free to move about and ‘engage in natural behavior’” • Cages, crates, and tie stalls are prohibited • Use of growth hormones and prophylactic antibiotics prohibited

Three-tier system of color-coded labels that ranks seafood products according to sustainability criteria • Catch location and fishing method – long line or hook and line • Non-profit founded by two graduate students in the Ocean Sciences Dept. at the University of California-Santa Cruz • Each report reviewed externally for scientific content and accuracy

Grew out of the public’s frustration that GMO (Genetically Modified Organic) foods do not require labeling in the US • Label claims that foods are made following the “best practices of GMO avoidance” • Cross-contamination and pollen drift make it difficult to guarantee that a food is entirely free of genetically modified ingredients

Developed as a result of farmers’ readiness to make the shift from conventional farming, while not completing going organic, as it is not as sustainable • Ex: Avoid harmful pesticides • Group of Wisconsin potato growers decided to after an especially toxic chemical (aldicarb) started showing up in local groundwater • Developed plan to reduce overall use of chemicals and eliminate highly toxic ones completely • Working with the University of Wisconsin, the World Wildlife Fund, the International Crane Foundation, and Defenders of Wildlife • To earn this label, farmers must also restore some of their farmland to prairie or wetlands

“Raised Without Antibiotics” • Usually means that antibiotics were used at some stage in the production process • Ex: Tyson foods, the second-largest US chicken producer, was labeling some chickens as “raised without antibiotics” despite the fact that they were injecting the eggs with an antibiotic and was using a non-human one in its chicken feed on a daily basis • Considered unapprovable by the USDA because there is no verification system in use for this statement

“Natural” • One of the most egregiously abused labels, since it doesn’t have to mean anything • Usually lumped together with “organic” products • USDA has defined the term only for use on fresh meat • Defined as: nothing added to the cut of meat itself • Therefore, you could have a cloned animal eating genetically modified food and being fed antibiotics everyday, but the product could still be labeled as “natural”

“Free Range/Roaming” • All a farmer has to do to label a product as “free range” is to “show that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside,” according to the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service • Ex: Five minutes outside per day can still receive a certification • BAD!! • No feeding restrictions • Lax regulation • Beef and egg-laying hens are completely unregulated

“United Egg Producers Certified” • Devised by United Egg Producers • Falsely implies that the chickens have been treated humanely • Ex: Cramped cages, starvation-based molting, dehydrated birds, denial of veterinary care • Replaces the even more misleading Animal Care Certified label, which was banned by the Federal Trade Commission

“American Humane Certified” • Program of American Humane Association • Permits both caged and cage-free options for egg-laying hens • Ex: Caged-hen can be crammed into a space the size of a sheet of paper • Ex: Forced molting through starvation is prohibited • Ex: Beak cutting allowed • Poor regulatory aims

“Dolphin Safe” • Partially certified claim because National Marine Fisheries Service verifies only tuna caught in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, not all tuna • No universal standards in place and most companies have developed their own logos for tuna products

“Grass Fed” • Look for “100% Grass Fed” • All cows eat grass when they’re young • Better to look for: USDA Process Verified Shield • Proves that the agency has defined that the cows were fed a lifetime diet of 100% grass and forage, with no grains or grain products • Cows must also have pasture during most of the growing season

“Nutri Clean Residue Free Certification” • Scientist Certification System’s Nutri Clean Program • Implies that a food bearing this label is free from pesticide residue • Isn’t entirely accurate: prgram merely tests products for pesticide residue and sets limits for the detection of specific ones • Doesn’t necessarily mean that pesticides weren’t used to grow the food • Label really offers nothing • Levels set by this label are the same required by the EPA

“Marine Stewardship Council” • Started as a noble initiative between World Wildlife Fun and Unilever, a major fish retailer • Considered one of the biggest seafood certifiers • Major scientists criticize the program and say that it needs radical reform • They question the sustainable certification of several fisheries that in recent years have experienced massive declines • Council is not a non-profit • Receives financial contributions from corporations that sell MSC-labeled seafood • Conflict of interest!

FALSE ADVERTISING! • Some common labels are so vague as to be utter nonsense. The terms below have no standards or definitions, or any method of verification. Thus the producer can use them in any way it sees fit, with no repercussions. • Cruelty free • Cage free • Environmentally friendly • Nature’s friend • No chemicals • Vegetarian Fed

Citations www.audobonmagazine.org

Peeling Back the Label!