Fowl Language and BS
Advice for the eaters of the feathered and the hooved.
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Fowl Language and BS
Hi, all, and welcome to Make-it-Green Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for an Earth Friendly Life. I realize that Americans are obsessed with holidays, so those of you in other countries can laugh and take the advice in this episode back to your normal dinner tables. For us, though, selection of Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas beast is just another item on our busy holiday worry list. Today I’ll be your guide to choosing an environmentally friendly dinner.
In episode 22, The Carnivore’s Dilemma, I told you about the modern eater’s choice between eating meat and adversely affecting the environment. “But, Green Girl!” you cried out. “How am I to cut meat from my diet when there are all these holiday parties to go to? What about the turkey and roast beast and Christmas goose?” Well, folks, the best I can hope for is that you’ll take the information in this episode and decide for yourselves what to serve during the holidays. Here’s to informed, earth friendly choices. *clink*
Decoding the Labels
Since you rarely get the opportunity to see your dinner go from pasture or barn to feedlot and slaughterhouse, companies who package meats use a variety of words to sell you their products. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this “information” so much as it is “descriptions” of the quality of your dinner. Today I’ll deal with labeling terms and how they clue us in to the animals feed, lifestyle, various off-farm inputs, and the handling of the meat.
Additives
First let’s talk about additives.
“No hormones” or “No hormones added” is a term regulated by the USDA. It means that the animal was given no artificial or natural hormones to supplement its growth. Producers are not allowed to administer hormones to pigs and poultry anyway, so if you see this label on those meat products, it’s redundant at best, misleading at worst.
Dairy cows are given hormones to increase milk production, and beef cattle to bring them to market weight faster. Worries about hormones arise chiefly from early maturation in children who drink milk and eat beef given growth hormones, and lab studies of rats (who are similar to humans in the way their hormones interact) who got cancer from overdoses of bovine growth hormones.
“No antibiotics administered” or “raised without antibiotics” means the animal was not given antibiotics as a part of its regular diet or as a treatment for a specific condition. Antibiotics used on healthy animals is a problem for humans because bacteria easily develop resistance to such widely applied substances. As a result, the rise of resistant salmonella, E. Coli, and staph bacteria are increasing the rates of secondary infections at hospitals. Also, this label is regulated by the USDA, but is not verified by a third party, so it’s up to the company to be honest with the consumer.
Organic means all this, plus no use of artificial ingredients can be added to the animal or the meat. The label “organic” or “certified organic” is also independently verified by several certification agencies throughout the U.S. A farm is certified organic, rather than a product, and the farm has to renew its certification under scrutiny of inspection every few years, so this label has a lot more legal power. It also has a lot more purchasing power, as organic meats can run up to 30% more bucks than their conventional counterparts.
Feed
OK, on to food. Since you are what you eat, what do the labels tell you about what your food ate?
Organic animals must feast on only 100% organically grown feed. This can be organic corn, organic hay, pretty much anything as long as the feed supplier is certified organic as well, or the organic dairy or livestock farm grew its own feed and was also certified organic by a third party.
“Grass fed” or “pasture raised” are used interchangeably to describe livestock that were raised on grass, not on grain. Mostly a descriptor for beef, this means the animal ate grass, not grain. Since cows, sheep, and other ruminants evolved to eat leaves, not seeds, these animals tend to be healthier, and their meat contains more vitamin A, omega-3 fats, and less cholesterol.
Also, the sheer mechanical difficulty of bringing the grass to the cow instead of the other way around almost certainly means the animal was raised outdoors on a pasture. However, this label isn’t independently verified, so again, it comes down to how well you trust the company.
Lifestyle
How your food lived might be important to you in terms of animal welfare, but it can also be a strong indicator of health and environmental factors, too.
For example, take the grass-fed cow. All cows are grown on grass by ranchers who breed the animals and are fattened in feedlots, or concentrated animal feeding operations, on corn, animal parts, municipal garbage, and whatever else will get the animal to slaughter weight. These feedlots fatten cattle so fast that almost every conventionally raised cow could be called 80% grass-fed.
There’s really no way to be certain if your dinner really had to spend time in these cramped and polluted feedlots, but another good indicator are the labels “grass-finished” and “100% grass-fed.” Finishing an animal is the process that fattens the animal before slaughter to produce the marbling that the USDA seems to prize so highly. Some cows can be fattened on grass and be called grass-finished, but this does not guarantee he ate grass his whole life. Again, it’s up to you to put your trust in the company. The USDA is currently in the process of revising the standards for the grass labels.
Organic farm animals must have access to the outdoors, but the time and type of outdoors is not specified, and most organic inspectors have a hard time regulating this vague provision. So the label organic can be abused by producers, or taken seriously and followed according to the producers scruples. Again, there’s no way to know.
“Free range” and “cage free” are terms used mostly for poultry, and it means the bird was given access to the outdoors similar to a natural environment, whether or not the bird actually uses it. This is similarly vague and unverified by a third party, so your laying or roasting chickens might have had a door in the barn open for five minutes a day, or might have grown up in pasture happily munching on worms and grass.
“Certified Humane” and “Free Farmed” are more stringent rules about the lifestyle an animal lives, such as engaging in natural behaviors, cages and crates are off limits, etc. These labels are third-party verified, so if you take a look at the rules and decide they work for you, you can be sure an outside party certified the product.
Processing and Handling
The last step from field to fork is the processing of meats.
Natural meats must be minimally processed with no artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, or indeed any synthetic ingredients (those that are synthesized by man, not in nature). This says nothing about the previous three categories (additives, feed, and lifestyle) but simply refers to the meat as a packaged product, not as a a whole.
Organic meats must have all this, and must not be treated with radiation to kill bacteria that may be on the meat due to poor sanitation during slaughter.
Of course, the best indicator of the quality of the meat is to buy from sources you trust. If you trust food companies to take care of your health, then read the labels with these definitions in mind.
If you’re like, me, though, that’s not good enough. I like to look my butcher in the eye, visit the farm, the feedlot, and the slaughter house, and decide for myself if I’m satisfied with how my food got to me. This takes a lot more work, of course. But the USDA has neither the time nor the budget to do it for you. The choice is yours.
References
Certified Humane and American Humane Society
What to Eat by Marion Nestle