Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

Signs, Signs,

BY JIM MATHIS Everywhere Signs

Do you ever find yourself at the grocery store looking at signs and labels and wondering what they really mean? Is “free range” better than “cage free?” What’s the difference between organic and all natural? What the heck is a GMO and do I care if something is or isn’t? Well, dear reader, I shall try to answer a few of those questions, even if the answers aren’t as straight forward as it seems like they should be.

Free-Range, Natural?

Let’s start with some of the more vague concepts like “natural.” Seems simple enough, right? To be called natural, a product needs to be free of artificial colorings, dyes, flavorings, or preservatives. But that can be pretty wide open to interpretation. Something could be made with GMOs, or be grown with agricultural chemicals, fertilizers and pesticides and still be called natural. So “natural” is a pretty low bar and doesn’t say much.

How about the “free-range” label on your chicken or turkey? Well, that means the poultry or livestock has access to the outdoors. But having access doesn’t mean that chicken spent its days roaming the countryside, in fact, it may have never actually gone outside, it just had the opportunity. Similarly, cage-free just means the animals (typically egg-laying hens) weren’t kept in cages. They may have been confined to a crowded barn, but they were not kept in cages. Now, if you’re looking for eggs that come from happy, truly cage-free and free-ranging hens, buy from a small local producer. Or do like a neighbor of ours does and put a chicken coop in your back yard.

You may also see labels saying an animal was “pasture-raised,” but again, that doesn’t mean it was frolicking on the open prairie. In fact, there is no federal standard for calling animals pastureraised. While it implies that the critter spent its days outside, it’s on the honor system.

Organic is Good, Right?

Yes, organic is good. But that doesn’t mean something that is not labeled organic is bad. The USDA oversees federal certification for organic crops. They have to be non-GMO, and produced without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. When the label is used on grains, they must be 100% organic. Meat and poultry must be raised without added hormones or antibiotics, and they have to be allowed to graze in pastures. That’s all good. The challenge comes in when you’re buying from small, local growers like you typically find at a farmers market. Many of those folks may be using the same farming methods as the organic farms, but they don’t have the time or resources to earn the USDA Organic label. My rule of thumb is that if you can talk to the person who grew your tomatoes, you can learn all you need to know without a fancy label.

“Real Organic” is an upgrade from USDA Organic. It was developed by and for producers who not only meet all USDA Organic qualifications, but they hold themselves to any even higher standard, growing vegetables in soil (as opposed to hydroponically) and animals are raised humanly and in pastures.

You’ll also see the phrase “grass fed” used to describe meat. Here’s the thing about grass fed, the USDA regulates the use of the term, but doesn’t enforce it. So if you want to make sure your steak is grass fed, look for seals that say Certified Grassfed By AGW or AGA. That will ensure that the animal was fed a diet that was 100% grass or forage, raised in pastures and never treated with antibiotics or hormones. You may also see “grass finished” which means it was fed corn and other feed for most of its life, but spent at least a few days out in the sunny pasture. In other words, it doesn’t mean much.

GMO or No?

What about GMOs, you ask? Good question. First off, GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. What does that mean? A gene from another species was inserted into the DNA of the original plant or animal to give it a specific trait. The most common example is corn that was modified with the genes from soil bacteria to make the plant more insect resistant, so farmers could raise crops with fewer pesticides. The gene that was inserted into the corn was the from the same naturally-occurring bacteria used in organic farming to fend off insects, but by changing the genetic makeup of the corn, they have created a GMO.

This is different from cross-pollinating and selective breeding, as those typically are within the same species or at least the same family. Whether it’s in plants or animals, humankind has been changing the genetic makeup of the plants and animals we eat. We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years and virtually everything thing you see at the grocery store has benefited from this idea. This gives us tomatoes with a longer shelf life, carrots that are orange instead of purple and the vast selection of apple varieties available today. Selective breeding also gives us cows that produce way more milk than imaginable a generation ago.

Are GMOs bad? That depends on who you ask. Some say we’re just speeding up the natural evolution of plants, much like the cross-pollinating and selective breeding. But those who are against GMOs are quick to point out that no genetically-modified crops have been proven safe for human consumption through human clinical trials. Scientists still don’t know what the long-term effects of significant GMO consumption could be. The problem lies in the testing. We simply have not done enough long-term testing to know whether GMOs are harmful or not. That leaves many people avoiding them because we don’t yet know the answer. I will not try to sway you one way or another. I don’t think anyone knows that answer to that question.

Perhaps on another day we’ll tackle grading beef… the USDA leaves us plenty to unscramble there, too. But for now, you know that natural doesn’t necessarily mean natural and free range may not be as free ranging as you’d expect. But one thing I know for sure, it’s May and the farmers markets are opening for another year, and whether the asparagus and peas are free-range or not, I’ll be bringing some home.

Do yourself a favor, eat something good today.

Jim is a pasture-raised, free-range marketing guy, founder of ADwërks, a little ad agency on the prairie..