Meat Labels: Natural No More Salon

On November 13th, 2014, Change Food hosted its second Salon on the confusion around the labeling of meat and meat products.

The term “natural” shows up often on meat labels, but it’s essentially meaningless. A recent national survey by Consumer Reports shows that the majority of customers are unaware of this, believing, for example, that it means that animals were provided access to the outdoors or never given anti­biotics.  None of that is true.

Meat Labels: Natural No More consisted of talks by key experts in this field, along with a guided discussion and strategy session to develop an action to stop the confusion with the term “natural”.

Speakers included:

Chuck Eggert, Founder and President, Pacific Foods
Urvashi Rangan, Consumers Union (part of Consumers Reports)
Andrew Gunther, Animal Welfare Approved
George Faison, DeBragga

Hosted by: Diane Hatz, Change Food

To learn about meat labels and claims around them, please read:

Making Sense of Food Labels

Antibiotics are Widely Used by U.S. Meat Industry
Consumer Reports: America's Most Wanted Food Labels

Change Food aggregates the best of the best already working toward healthy food change, amplifies their voices through our events and programs, and advance their work and the goal of the food movement – to provide healthy, safe, delicious, fair food for ALL. To learn more, visit ChangeFood.org. Follow and support us on Patreon.

  •

    Urvashi Rangan at Meat Labels: Natural No More – Urvashi Rangan

    Change Food

    We at Consumer Reports do lots of different things. We’re lots of different scientists. And one of the most fun things we get to do is deal with other scientists in our organization. And survey is actually loaded with scientists. And we run really interesting national polls. We can kind of take the pulse on […]

  •

    Andrew Gunther at Meat Labels: Natural No More – Andrew Gunther

    Change Food

    Now, that is a really hard to act to follow on the basis that everything Urvashi does is based in science. And although everything AWA does is based in science, we work with round about 2,000 farmers across the US, and about two million acres. And we’re a third party audit program. So what we […]

  •

    Chuck Eggert at Meat Labels: Natural No More – Chuck Eggert

    Change Food

    I have to give a couple of disclosures. Because if you read any of the history of the natural food business, natural food stores. That almost all of them started as counterculture hippies in the 70s. And some of us were working. So I’m second generation. And the other thing that I think is important […]

  •

    George Faison at Meat Labels: Natural No More – George Faison

    Change Food

    Coming last after all these speakers, many of the things that I planned on talking about have already been covered far better than I could probably cover them. But it also frees me up perhaps to talk a little more extemporaneously about the real issue that Diane invited me to speak. Which was, what’s the […]