Top green humane poultry, meat & dairy labels

Best Green, Humane Picks

If you eat animals but care about how they live and die, and felt discomfited by recent reports on chicken slaughter methods, rest assured there are humane alternatives. Look for third-party-verified, certified humane labels on poultry, eggs, dairy, and meat. Independent third-party vetting of claims is the gold green standard, as opposed to industry self-verification, which cannot be objective. The following seals mean that antibiotics are given only to sick animals; no growth hormones are administered; and feeding of animal parts to animals is prohibited. Animals are not confined in cages, and specific humane slaughtering requirements must be followed to qualify for the labels below (pasture/grass requirements are noted where applicable).

Animal Welfare Approved: This family farm label guarantees that cows and chickens spend most of their lives outdoors in the fields; has very specific humane handling and shelter standards; and gets top ratings from the World Society for Protection of Animals.

Certified Humane: Pasture time is not specified, although humane shelter (enough space to freely move about; no crates, cages, or being tied in stalls) and handling are.

Food Alliance Certified: Sets clear standards for lifetime access to pasture and humane treatment, including slaughtering. (See www.foodalliance.org.)New: Food Alliance now has an additional, exclusively grassfed label

Demeter Biodynamic (meat, milk, cheese, eggs): Animals are guaranteed outdoor time at least partially on grass, and may not be confined.

American Grassfed Association (ruminant meat & dairy): Cows, sheep, and goats eat grass, period, and this standard requires that they spend most of their lives outside, in a pasture. Third-party-certified by the Food Alliance (see later in this list). Sick animals, if given antibiotics, are removed from the program.

Maine Quality Trademark (milk): No growth hormones are used; animal welfare is respected.

Good and Green but Not Guaranteed Humane

USDA Certified Organic: Better for you, but not necessarily for the animals. They eat only 100 percent certified organic grass, corn, or grain, and sick animals given antibiotics are removed from the program. While it's required that animals have “access” to pasture, this is currently not clearly defined except, since February 2010, for dairy cows. In the autumn of 2010 USDA is considering similar outdoor living guarantees for poultry. Human slaughtering is not addressed.

Lesser Labels: Not Third-Party Verified

United Egg Producer Certified: There is no third-party verification of humane treatment of creatures,nor pasture/outdoor acess requirement.

Cage-Free, Free Range or Free Roaming: There is no guarantee that the cows, chickens, or other animals actually got outdoors, and no third-party verification that they are not caged or confined, the Humane Society warns.

“Grass Fed”: The USDA defines this as the animal ate only 100 percent grass in its life, but third-party verification is not required.

USDA “Naturally Raised”: These products contain no hormones* or artificial colorings, and only a few antibiotics are allowed, but there’s no third-party verification.

Excerpted from my book Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices (St Martin's Press, 2010).

For more green news and product tips on food, cleaning, personal care, plastics and more, come to our home page, GreenerPenny.com, where you can also send me an email and ask me questions.

Thanks!
Mindy Pennybacker

Safer, sustainable beef: organic, grass-fed, humanely raised

Meat is among the top 10 food issues we'll be contending with in 2010, nutritionist Marion Nestle predicts. We certainly can't be careful enough about avoiding foodborne illness through contaminated meat, especially ground beef, a recent investigation by The New York Times makes clear. The newspaper discovered that E. coli and salmonella pathogens have been found dozens of times in Beef Products ground beef, 5.5 million pounds of which were served in U.S. schools last year. The testing was performed by the school lunch program arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Beef Products "fatty beef trimmings" are also widely used in burgers for fast food restaurants, including McDonald's and Kroger's. But does the USDA test Beef Products meat that goes to other outlets besides schools? No. The agency accepts the company's self-testing that shows its ammonia treatments are effective in killing bacteria.

A whopping 35 million lbs. of meat was recalled nationwide in 2007, and 7.5 million lbs. in 2008, according to Food Safety News.We've yet to find a total count for beef recalls due to E. coli in 2009, but the website reported there had been 11 recalls totalling 575,000 lbs. of ground beef by mid-October. That, however, was before 545,000 lbs. of contaminated hamburger was recalled for E. Coli in several states in November, although it was sold in September. Even if 2009 recalls total "only" a bit over a million lbs., it's an unappetizing, intolerable and dangerous situation.

What to do to protect the burger lovers in your life? Buy true quality: USDA certified organic, grass-fed or certified humane ground beef. Why? Because these labels guarantee that food can be traced back to the source, that is, the actual farm and cow. This makes for greater accountability and responsibility in the food chain. While any animal product, organic or not, can become contaminated with pathogens, the cleaner diets and more careful handlng of animals raised according to these labels provides a healthy buffer. Plus, they're free of antibiotics and added hormones.

Philosophically, we favor humane animal welfare labels that guarantee the creature had had freedom to move about, clean quarters, fresh air, a vegetarian diet, and was slaughtered with minimal suffering. The most reliably humane labels are certified humane, food alliance ,animal welfare approved. To find grass-fed meat and dairy products in your locale, search the Eat Wild Guide by zip code.

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Thanks,
Mindy