American Grassfed Association Rejects New USDA Grassfed Label

Once again the food regulatory agencies are climbing in bed w/ the big corporations to the detriment of consumers and small producers and family farmers. Why do they attempt to torture the simple meaning of plain words?We all know what grass fed should mean. Ask any 10 yo kid that's spent a couple of months on a real farm and bucked a few bales of hay. S/he can tell you in very eloquent manner just *exactly* what grass fed means. Why does the FDA,USDA and the EPA continually try to piss on our legs and tell us it's raining?

original-cornucopia

American Grassfed Association Rejects New USDA Grassfed Label

Partners with Food Alliance for More Rigorous Standard and Certification Program

Denver, CO - The American Grassfed Association (AGA), representing more than 300 grassfed livestock producers, today rejected standards for grassfed claims announced by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), protesting rules that allow confinement of animals and the use of hormones and antibiotics.

“The USDA rules for grassfed claims don’t serve consumers or farmers well,” said AGA director Carrie Balkcom. “Consumers of grassfed products want animals raised on pasture without growth hormones or antibiotics. Farmers need a standard that will preserve consumer trust in grassfed claims and protect the value of this important niche market. By focusing exclusively on feed, the USDA standard leaves the door open for an industrial model of agriculture that absolutely goes against public expectations for grassfed products.”

Added Balkom: “The USDA standard simply doesn’t go far enough to make a meaningful and marketable grassfed label. This will confuse consumers and it will hurt the farmers and ranchers who pioneered grassfed.”

Among other concerns, AGA noted that the USDA standard only required that animals have access to pasture during the growing season meaning animals could be kept in confinement for long periods, and that it allowed incidental supplementation of the forage diet to ensure the animal’s welfare meaning animals could be fed grain and still marketed as grassfed.

New USDA Standards Conflict with Consumer Demands

~snip~
.
.
.
complete article here