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The good news is that the U.S. Department of
Agriculture has created a new label to help consumers know when grass-fed
meat actually comes from animals that, you know, were raised on grass. The
bad news is that this is George W. Bush’s Department of Agriculture
— where business always comes first and consumer protection is a
joke. After five years of discussion, the USDA has finally
issued formal standards on what constitutes grass-fed meat. Indeed, the new
rules say that the label should only be applied to meat from animals that
eat grass rather than those that are fattened on grains, animal pellets,
and God-knows-what. So far, so good. But here come the
“howevers.”
Instead of guaranteeing the bucolic purity that the
term “grass-fed” implies, the USDA’s standards allow the
use of artificial growth hormones and antibiotics to force cows and other
animals to fatten faster. Also, rather than happily foraging in rich
pastures of grass, the animals can be confined in massive factory
operations for long periods of their lives. Oh, and this being a Bush regulation, participation
in the verification process is voluntary! Any agribusiness outfit can slap
a USDA “verified” “grass-fed” label on its beef,
even if its cows lived in cages and never ate a single blade of grass. When
verification is voluntary, a label means nothing. That’s why the honest-to-goodness producers of
true grass-fed meat are appalled. Refusing to go along with what they see
as a consumer fraud, these producers are setting up their own labeling
system, using the certification process of an independent, nonprofit,
sustainable ag group called the Food Alliance. To keep up with the development of a consumer label
you can trust, contact the American Grassfed Association: 877-774-7277.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
columnist, and author.
This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2007.
