Dairy Clarity

Dairy Clarity

ESSAY OF THE WEEK

A new labeling standard for grass-fed dairy-great news! pic.twitter.com/u7u3joJffG | A new labeling standard for grass-fed dairy-great news! pic.twitter.com/u7u3joJffG | Read the Full Article

As conscious consumers, we look to labels to help us make choices that are good for us, good for the environment, good for animals and good for the people who work to bring us good food.

Unfortunately, as we know from the controversy that has for so long swirled around the word “natural” on labels, without clear standards, and a plan for enforcing those standards, labels can be meaningless at best, misleading at worst.

Nowhere has that been more evident than in the dairy industry. As consumer demand soars for milk and other dairy products from animals raised on grass (instead of GMO corn, soy and cottonseed), consumers are looking for clarity.

Take heart—clarity is coming.

The American Grassfed Association (AGA) is working on a new industry-wide grass-fed dairy standard, the certifier hopes to roll out soon. AGA is working with producers and with others in the industry, including OCA, Mercola.com and the Savory Institute, to develop a label that takes into account: 

•    Animal health and nutrition
•    Transparency of practices and claims
•    Holistic land and soil management
•    Support and validation for producers
•    Building a certified organic standard while providing a bridge with non-organic grass-fed claims

Now that consumers know they’ve been duped by the “low-fat milk” scam, and that dairy products from animals raised on grass provide superior nutrition, the new AGA label for grass-fed dairy products can’t come soon enough. (And don’t even get us started on how industrial degenerative dairy “factory farms” pollute the environment and torture the animals).

Read the essay