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A large group of chickens – debeaked, photophobic and packed in poultry shacks tighter than mall shoppers on Black Friday – will qualify as ‘naturally raised’ under the new label proposed by the USDA, so long as they were never doped up with antibiotics or growth hormones.
The USDA believes the proposed label could add a 10% value to poultry and other meats – a sort of purgatory between conventional and organic meats. There’s definitely some interest in the idea out there – Chipotle Mexican Grill, for one, pledged to purchase 52 million pounds of ‘naturally raised meats’ in the next year – though they believe the definition should also include humane treatment and vegetarian diets for the animals.
So far the USDA has received more than 2,500 comments on the proposed label, many of them citing the deceptiveness of a ‘naturally raised’ label for animals leading highly unnatural lives. Consumer Reports surveyed folks and found that 83% of us think that ‘naturally raised’ animals should mean ‘raised in a natural environment’ in addition to never being treated with antibiotics or growth hormones.
Because of the large response, the USDA will accept comments on the proposed label for another month, through March 3rd.
This of course is all in the midst of the USDA and the FDA sweating out a better definition of just ‘natural’ in response to food giants and consumers’ unions suing the pants off each other over uncategorized ingredients.
Whether confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) will be able to sell their animals as USDA certified ‘naturally raised’ remains to be seen. What is certain is that the battle over labels will continue to rage between corporations eager to claim their share of increasing environmentally conscious consumers – that’s right - us envirovores.
Via: Phoenix Business Journal
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