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Natural
Meat?
In response to a petition by Hormel Foods
to define the "natural" label on meat products, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting public comments regarding
the labeling of "natural" meat products. However, they want
to apply this misleading and confusing label to processed food products.
Farm Sanctuary has appealed to the USDA to expand the labeling criteria
by encompassing the treatment and living conditions of animals raised
for food prior to their slaughter. Click
Here to read Farm Sanctuary's submitted comments on Product Labeling:
Definition of the Term "Natural".
Growing societal concern and opposition to housing farm animals in cruel, intensive confinement was apparent last November, when 62% of Arizona voters approved Proposition 204 to prohibit the use of veal crates and gestation crates, 2-foot-wide enclosures that confine calves raised for veal and sows who are used for breeding.
Animal products
obtained from animals who are raised completely indoors, deprived of living
space and stimulation appropriate to the species, does not fit most consumers'
expectations of a "natural" product, regardless of how the meat
from the animal is processed after its slaughter. A recent nationwide
Zogby
poll, commissioned by Farm Sanctuary, concludes that the majority
of Americans consider the use of a "natural" label to be "inappropriate."
What
You Can Do!
Oppose the use of the "natural" label on factory farmed meat
products. The extended deadline to submit comments to the Food Safety
Inspection Service of the USDA is March 5, 2007.
Points to consider:
"Natural" meat products can come from animals who experience:
- genetic
alterations which force fast growth, causing numerous health problems,
- animals
packed by the thousands in unnatural, crowded, indoor warehouse-like
factories for the duration of their lives,
- animals
unable to experience natural outdoor environments or fulfill their basic
instincts,
- unnaturally
rich diets designed to maximize production and economic profitability,
- the routine
use of antibiotics to ward off disease, as well as to increase growth
rates,
- the routine
administration of growth hormones
- inhibited
natural social orders and interaction,
- painful
mutilations (de-toeing, de-beaking, de-horning and castration) performed
without anesthetics,
- intensive production to maximize profit with no regard for the animals' welfare.
Submit comments on Docket No. FSIS 2006-0040, Product Labeling: Definition of the Term "Natural" to:
RE: Docket No. FSIS 2006-0040
Docket Clerk,
U.S. Department of Agriculture,
Food Safety and Inspection Service,
300 12th Street, SW.,
Room 102, Cotton Annex,
Washington, DC 20250.
Or email comments to: FSIS Docket Room, Docket Clerk, USDA / FSIS at: fsis.regulationscomments@fsis.usda.gov
Comments
will be posted here: http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main
Under Agency: Food Safety and Inspection Service; Click on FSIS-2006-0040
to see posted comments