Tips on labels, newborn goats, and raw facts.

By now, you’ve probably seen it all: cage-free eggs, organic apples, grass-fed beef, pasture-raised chicken. Maybe even gluten-free water, sugar-free Tic Tacs, and decaffeinated bananas. Our foods are labeled with a range of claims, some deceptive, some in truth, and others just for fun.

To get an understanding of how the food we’re eating is handled beyond its labels, we need to dive deep. Hold your breath.

We’ll be touching on the 4 most impactful and often misunderstood label categories found on our foods:

Slapped on any and every egg carton you can find, these three standards vary widely in how they are defined.

To start, think about what “cage-free” invokes in your mind. Happy chickens, open space, sunlight, breaths of fresh air. Well, if that’s what you were thinking, I’m sorry to spoil the image, but cage-free is one of the least restrictive labels in use. Farms only need 2 annual inspections verifying open access to food and water to qualify. An even then, that doesn’t mean that they have to be outside. More often than not, hens are still enclosed in high-density industrial facilities with little to no outside access. Farming practices like beak trimming, low light exposure, and shortened lifespans are also still allowed. But at least there are no cages… *sigh*

A step up from this is “free-range.” With this standard, the feelings of freedom it invokes are far from the truth. In reality, qualifying as free-range means giving animals some access to an outside space during their breeding cycle. This could simply be a door opening that leads them to another concrete pad and an open roof for 5 minutes (the minimum allowed time in practice). There are no defined requirements for quality, size, or duration with regards to the meaning of “outside access.” And when you look at animals other than chickens, it has almost no real meaning. Cattle, pigs, and other livestock have no framework to define the label.

The best (and nearly perfect) label is that of “pasture-raised.” The definition is clear: animals must spend the majority of their lives on land “with rooted vegetative cover, grasses, or plants”. Under this standard, there are clear space requirements and the pastures must be lived on year-round and rotated on schedule. Happy animals, happy soil, happy bellies.

Despite the improved lives pasture-raised animals lead, diets that are good for the health of the animals, and in turn ourselves, are not guaranteed. That’s where feed comes in…

The quest for knowing what the food we eat eats has been taking over the minds of biohackers, granola moms, and everyone in between.

Studies have shown that avoiding soy, grain, and industrial feed-fed animal products can reduce inflammation and chronic disease. This is due to lower amounts of linoleic acid (more on that another week), higher nutrient density, and higher levels of omega-3s. Sourcing grass-fed food is always your best bet.

There are some caveats to consider before reaching for the grass-fed meat and milk, though. If you see “grass-fed” that’s a good start, but what often matters most is how the animals are fed toward the end of their lives, in other words, how they are finished.

Grass-fed means the animals’ diets have to consist of foraged grass, forbs, browse, or pre-grain crops, but that isn’t required for their whole lives. It is an industry standard to grain-finish livestock during their last 90 to 120 days to fatten them up for higher yield. This often means transitioning them from open pastures to enclosed facilities to keep them fixed on their diets.

It’s best to look for “grass-finished” labels on your meat to ensure the animals are living their best lives from farm to table. This way you know they spent their entire lives living on grass and getting some sun.

As an added bonus, if you can find labels 'like “soy-free,” “grain-free,” or “vegetable-fed” (often found on chicken and pork products), you have a higher chance of introducing healthy fats, healthy food, and small acts of freedom into your life.

These labels are wildly misused across our grocery stores and food establishments.

When it comes to pork and poultry, hormone free is pretty much entirely meaningless. It is already completely illegal to use added hormones in their production (if you have to question it, you need to find a better source). It’s only relevant to beef, which means no use of synthetic growth hormones to speed up production and tissue growth, which can be very unhealthy for an animal to go through.

Antibiotics are a little trickier. The gold standard is “No Antibiotics Ever,” or NAE (also called “raised without antibiotics” or “never ever antibiotics”). This means no antibiotic use in an animal through feed, water, or injection at any point in their lives. USDA approval is required for NAE to be labeled on food. Paired with auditable third-party testing, this ensures no trace antibiotics are in the food. This is a more common problem than you might realize, as 20% of USDA tested foods contained antibiotic residues. Always look for third-party testing when verifying these label claims.

“Antibiotic-free” is a big one, technically not even approved for use on meat products. The rough definition of antibiotic-free gives producers at least a two week window to get their animals off of antibiotics before they are able to label them as such. This means antibiotics can be used throughout an animal’s life, as long as they are not used within two weeks of ending up on your table. But that two week time frame can include the time it takes for an animal to be processed for meat. Antibiotic-free does not mean antibiotic-free for life.

But most confused and misunderstood of all, is our final slew of labels…

We all want to dart straight for the natural labels on our products, but that doesn’t always mean what we assume. While these labels ensure no use of artificial ingredients, the use of hormones, antibiotics, GMOs, or pesticides is not restricted. Welfare practices are also not enforced or defined.

Non-GMO products must have “Project Verified” next to their claims to be trusted. This third-party verification has strict definitions for what non-GMO products can contain. If not accompanied by the standard butterfly seal, it often means the producer is self-verifying their labels with no backing.

And last, but certainly not least, is organic. While we have already done a deep dive on the meaning of organic on food, to summarize, there are a lot of levels to this label. What you want to look out for when improving your sources are “100% Organic” and “USDA Certified Organic” labels. These work to ensure synthetic pesticides, biological fertilizers, antibiotics and hormones, and GMOs can’t affect your digestion and long-term health. Couple these with a “regenerative” label and you're doing your part in supporting soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness. Your gut and community will thank you.

What better way to spend your day than reading about food labels!

We hope this helps you peruse your food aisles with confidence. If you’re still feeling a bit daunted, don’t worry. Small steps make all the difference. Start with one food item you get often. Next time you’re buying it, take a minute to read the packaging. Find what you like, and replace what you don’t.

And if you want to take it a step further, take a day-trip to visit a local farmer. Get a lay of the land and see how things get done. There’s no better way to know what the labels on your food really mean than by going straight to the source!

h/t @strong.sistas

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To a day full of love and sun,

rearchitecting the broken food system. freeing the food.