I've been perusing over mass media information about how to become more conscious about my food purchases. I was particularly interested the humane treatment of animals and pesticide free food. Not that I'm any expert. I simply wanted to become better informed. At this point I've watched a couple of movies, and I've read several articles pertaining to the subject, but I believe what I've learned is worth a post.
Interestingly, I've noticed that a lot of the disgusting abuse videos I found date back to early 2000 and before. In an attempt to keep things current, this post will provide my take from information I acquired that was published in 2011 or greater. I think it's also important to stress that this post will also expire in time. The humane treatment of animals for use as our food is not a topic that has a lot of positive information, but at the same time positive changes are here right now.
The bottom line was surprising. Here are my findings from WORST to BEST, in terms of third party auditing and food labels. I believe we should continue to check ingredients and food labels because all third parties are not created equally.
Surprise! The printed words such as Cruelty Free, Cage Free, Environmentally Friendly, Nature's Friend, No Chemicals, Vegetarian Fed are all a marketing strategy called "green washing." They mean absolutely nothing - the producing party says it's so, and puts the words on the packaging. There is no third party auditing company that supports these claims.
The companies that are basically promoting products for them to be able to display a label, but don't require anything substantial to get the label are: United Egg Producers Certified and American Humane Certified.
The third party groups that allow their labels on the packaging and seem legit from my perspective in order of priority are...
1. Animal Welfare Approved
2. Global Animal Partnership.
3. USDA Organic
4. Certified Humane Raised/Handled
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