Did I read that right?
/By HEEFS Board member, Cailen LaBarge
To say that marketing messages surrounding our food are misleading would be an understatement, and perhaps nowhere is this more true than when it comes to the use of animals in our food system.
The myth of Daisy the cow
The world is filled with animal lovers, and these days, more and more people are adopting purchasing habits that reflect their core values. Contributing to this shift is a growing body of evidence showing that the welfare of farmed animals is directly related to food safety and human health.[1] Studies have shown time and again that consumers will pay significantly more money for food products advertised as: from animals humanely raised and treated.[2]
“Cage free,” “pasture raised,” “grass fed,” “farm fresh,” “all natural,” “free run,” “humanely raised,” “certified humane,” and the list goes on - there are a countless terms available to meat, egg, and dairy producers trying to convince consumers that their animals are the product of a happy, idyllic life and a painless, stress-free death. Many producers also identify themselves as “family farms,” hoping for a similar effect.
Paint a pretty picture
Sadly, farmed animal welfare isn’t regulated on the farm itself, and the overwhelming majority of Canadian and US livestock are raised, transported, and slaughtered under factory-like conditions[3] the average person would consider horrifying. Of course, no one wants to talk about that…especially not when they are trying to get you to purchase their product. Not many people realize that only a few of the terms used to “sell” food products are controlled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). In fact, most are simply clever attempts to deceive consumers into paying more. So what do these labels really mean, and which ones carry the weight of regulation? Let’s break it down:
1. Cage free, pasture raised, free run, grass fed, farm fresh
These terms all invoke beautiful images of lush, green fields with the animals running around happily engaging in natural behaviors. But “cage free” doesn’t necessarily mean less crowded, and unless the producer is being inspected under the certification process for another labeling program, such as “SPCA certified,” use of these terms doesn’t generally require inspection or verification…so they’re pretty much meaningless in terms of animal welfare.[4]
“Free range” seems to imply the same thing as “pasture raised,” but all it requires is that the birds “have access” to the outdoors, which is often a small, concrete enclosure, and “free run” simply means the birds are kept in large sheds and not caged.
The term “cage free” can also be found on many chicken and turkey package labels, in addition to egg carton labels, and in this context it has no meaning whatsoever! All factory-farmed chickens and turkeys that are raised for meat are crammed together in large, cage-less sheds and are bred to grow so big that they often can’t move so that, in effect, their own bodies become the “cage.”[5]
Finally, use of the term “farm fresh” has nothing to do with welfare and requires no minimum animal welfare standards.[6]
2. All natural, hormone free, antibiotic free
Producers love terms that categorize – in most examples, misleadingly – their products as free from additives and contaminants. The reality, however, is quite grim. While Canada has issued some regulation guiding the use of these terms, producers may still use the label “raised without the use of antibiotics” even if their animals are given anti-microbial drugs, as long as those drugs have been registered with the CFIA and given in feed.[7]
The U.S., on the other hand, doesn’t regulate the use of the term “natural” at all when it comes to on-farm practices.[8] In addition, all commercially-farmed poultry is raised without hormones, so this term is meaningless when applied to poultry and egg labels and, for this reason, is not permitted on most Canadian animal product labels.[9]
What about sick animals? If a product states it is free of antibiotics, that can be a “red flag” that the animal may not have received necessary veterinary care when sick. What is most important here, when it comes to understanding how your food is marketed, is that the use of any of the above terms requires no prior verification by the CFIA of minimal animal welfare standards.
3. Family farm
Who doesn’t think of a big red barn, a sunny day, and happy animals lazing about on acres of green pasture when they hear the term “family farm”? In truth, the vast majority of factory farms are only “family-owned” due to the vertical integration model that has proliferated throughout animal agriculture industries in the past few decades. This model has large, multinational producer corporations owning and controlling the animals and how they are raised, transported, and slaughtered, while the animals are raised on farms owned by individual “contract grower” farmers. And some of these large corporate operations are themselves owned by “families”. Approximately 98% of all farms in the U.S.[10] and more than 90% of those in Canada[11] meet the definition of a “family farm”, yet you would be hard-pressed to find that idyllic red barn and rolling acres of green pasture on any of those producing animal products.
While animal producers would like us to think otherwise, most farmed animals are raised crammed together in filthy conditions without quality veterinary care and without the ability to express natural behaviors. It’s a far, far cry from the beautiful world of sunny fields and grazing animals packaging claims would have you believe.
Instead of relying on these labels…
We encourage everyone to consider the switch to an Esther-approved diet – the animals, your health and your planet will thank you.
[1] Center for Food Safety, America’s Secret Animal Drug Problem: How Lack of Transparency Is Endangering Human Health and Animal Welfare (2015), http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/animal_drug_10_26_77838.pdf.
[2] Am. Humane Ass’n, Humane Heartland Farm Animal Welfare Survey (2013), https://www.americanhumane.org/app/uploads/2013/08/humane-heartland-farm-animals-survey-results.pdf; C. Victor Spain et al., Are They Buying It? United States Consumers’ Changing Attitudes Toward More Humanely Raised Meat, Eggs, and Dairy, 8 Animals 128 (2018).
[3] J.S. Foer. Eating Animals, NewYork, NY: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company (2010); Sentience Institute, US Factory Farming Estimates, https://www.sentienceinstitute.org/us-factory-farming-estimates (2019).
[4] Humane Canada, Humane Certification, https://www.humanecanada.ca/humane_certification.
[5] BC SPCA, Top Seven Misleading Food Labels, https://spca.bc.ca/news/top-seven-misleading-food-labels/.
[6] BC SPCA, Top Seven Misleading Food Labels, https://spca.bc.ca/news/top-seven-misleading-food-labels/.
[7] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Method of Production Claims for Meat, Poultry, and Fish Products, https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-label-requirements/labelling/industry/method-of-production-claims/eng/1389379565794/1389380926083?chap=8.
[8] United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Meat and Poultry Labeling Terms, https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/food-labeling/meat-and-poultry-labeling-terms/meat-and-poultry-labeling-terms/!ut/p/a1/jZFRb4IwEMc_DY-lx3AG90ZIFmUTZsxm5WUpehSS0pK2jrhPP9wyExed9p569_vn7v5HC8poofhHI7hrtOLy8C_G77CAcTBJIM0nwSPMsrdF_pQkEC3vB2D9D5CFN-ovvBiu6dMbGtyZeTIXtOi4q0mjKk2ZQEe4sj0aS1ml9ZZYXqHbk4pvHLE1ovstSF6ibJSgrEV-UG1Jp3fSmf2xRBya1l4HVrQ4HReCIWZZuBxN0yyEfPQXOOPnD3DZsMERIXX5fbx1rMowGlY3WKFB4-_MkK6d6-yDBx70fe8LrYVEf6NbD85Jam0dZack7dpX9vkcT6F5aVeRjb8Ay-NlYw!!/#14.
[9] Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Method of Production Claims for Meat, Poultry, and Fish Products, https://www.inspection.gc.ca/food-label-requirements/labelling/industry/method-of-production-claims/eng/1389379565794/1389380926083?chap=8.
[10] USDA ERS, Statistic: Farm Economy, https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2017/march/large-family-farms-continue-to-dominate-us-agricultural-production/.
[11] The Canadian Encyclopedia, Farm Law, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/farm-law
