Truth In Food Labeling Would Reveal Hidden Harms To Biodiversity, Including Humans

Should we let businesses that contaminate community water systems write their own rules for what counts as unhealthy? Should we allow factories to spew dangerous emissions into the air? Should we turn our backs when employers force workers to endure dangerous conditions? Of course not. We want to protect each other from known hazards. Then why is truth in food labeling any different?

The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service recently updated its guideline for claims about animal welfare and the environment. Those new guidelines allow optional third-party certification for climate consequences and concurrent labeling transparency.

Those labels can be unreliable. Documentation is weak. Lots of claims are misleading and manipulative. It’s time for evidence to be the foundation that drives food labeling.

Extinction is the most serious, irreversible impact humans have on the planet. And right now, here at the end of 2024, we’re in the middle of the sixth mass extinction event in the planet’s 4.5 billion-year history. But surprisingly few people in the US have ever heard of the extinction crisis, and even fewer believe it’s happening.