Animal Product Labeling

Farm Forward sent a letter to the Deputy Undersecretary of Food Safety at the USDA sharing our concerns and offering actionable recommendations that would help ensure consumer trust in meat labeling.

This year, we partnered with the research firm Data for Progress to test some of our hypotheses about consumer understandings of everything from “pasture raised” to Global Animal Partnership’s “Animal Welfare Certified” label.

A federal judge in California ruled that the consumer protection lawsuit alleging Whole Foods Market falsely advertised its beef as “no antibiotics, ever” can proceed.

Whole Foods is objecting to proceeding with discovery. It’s not a good sign that the largest natural retailer in the country, which built a reputation on being honest and transparent, won’t share even the most basic information with the public about who supplies their meat or give assurances that they’ve taken steps to ensure their marketing claims are true.

The USDA announced changes to the guidelines meat companies must follow if they want to label their products as “humanely raised,” “free range,” or “raised without antibiotics.”

Last month, the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau (NAD)—an institution designed to bolster consumer trust in advertising by investigating claims made by businesses—recommended that One Health Certified (OHC) discontinue its animal welfare claims.

The ask cites a recently published Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) report documenting the USDA’s failure to regulate animal-raising claims on meat found in grocery stores. Over 80 percent of the animal-raising claims on meat and poultry products that AWI requested information about from the USDA had no, or inadequate, information submitted to the USDA for the approval of the claim.

Findings from our recent survey show what American consumers understand about the farmed-animal industry; promising insights, and some troubling beliefs.

Major corporations cash in on so-called “humane” labels like “antibiotic free”, “natural”, and “organic”, even though their corresponding husbandry practices almost never match consumers’ expectations for animal welfare.

Whole Foods Market has claimed all of their meat products come from animals not treated with antibiotics, but our findings suggest otherwise.

Farm Forward’s public service announcement was censored in the two cities where Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting kicked off. Read why.

The National Chicken Council’s response to New York Times enlightening video misses the mark, and on purpose, for these reasons. Learn more.

The history of Farm Forward’s efforts to reveal the truth behind Whole Foods advertising practices around animal products tells its own tale.

GAP and Whole Foods have failed to prevent the use of drugs in their supply chains, raising questions about the claims they make about their meat. 

Beef certified by Global Animal Partnership (GAP), the animal welfare certification used primarily by Whole Foods Market, was found to contain antibiotic residue despite GAP’s and Whole Foods’ claims that their meat is “antibiotic-free.”

Farm Forward has found a variety of drugs, including an antibiotic, in meat certified as having “no antibiotics, ever” taken from products purchased from Whole Foods store shelves.

GAP’s “better chicken” is better for business, but consumers, public health, the environment, and, of course, the chickens themselves are not necessarily better off when factory farmed products are viewed more favorably.

You may be with the majority of Americans who rely too heavily on label claims by meat manufacturers but are we also duped by the certifiers?

Grocery chain Giant Eagle has revealed its plans to phase out all “One Health Certified” (OHC) chicken from its stores.

Myq Kaplan of Comedy Central, The Tonight Show, and Letterman fame has narrated a thought-provoking new video to combat false advertising by massive meat, egg, and dairy companies.

Farm Forward has kicked off a campaign and ad blitz calling out the meat industry’s latest deceptive marketing scheme, “One Health Certified” (OHC), which now adorns Batavia, Illinois-based ALDI’s store-brand chicken.

Farm Forward condemns the meat industry’s latest effort to deceive consumers through the legitimate-appearing “One Health Certified” (OHC) certification.

In April 2020, after more than a decade of service, Farm Forward resigned, in protest, from the board of the nation’s largest legitimate animal welfare certification, Global Animal Partnership or GAP.

Commendable efforts by Perdue Farms to progress poultry farming on an industrial scale. See how they are committing to animal welfare here.

Leadership Circle raises the bar and helps you meet it by developing the network of higher-welfare farms, and driving consumer demand to them.

One hog farmer, Paul Willis, chose farming over industrialized production, and has shown us what high-welfare pig farming looks like.

The report, titled “Animal Welfare in the National Organic Program: The USDA Must Act Quickly to Ensure Consumer Trust,” documents how farmers, retailers, and consumer advocates overwhelmingly support—and expect—stronger welfare standards for animals raised under the organic program.

This lack of transparency and meaning in labels is one of the main reasons we created BuyingPoultry—to help consumers cut through confusing labels and find healthier, higher-welfare poultry and egg options.

The University of California (UC) system announced that eight of its ten schools will now purchase eggs from certified higher welfare farms.

In response to the Trump Administration’s second delay of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule, Farm Forward joins The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) to entreat the USDA to implement the rules without further delay

Unethical slaughter methods continue to be commonly used in the production of kosher meat sold in the United States and Israel, but resistance to these outdated practices is mounting due to public pressure.

Premium care comes with a premium price. But how can you know which package is best? Learn more about the system here.

One third-generation poultry farmer is raising the floor on American commercial poultry farming. Learn more on how here.

Animal products from slaughterhouses with painful methods and sick animals still somehow manages to keep Kosher? Learn more here.