What is wrong with this organization?
The USDA is unraveling a decade-old decision to uniformly label grass-fed beef.
The move, seen as shocking by many advocacy groups, would mean that all meat producers will have 30 days to figure out another way to label their meat, completely up to them as to how to label it.
“Meat labeling just became, even more, confusing for farmers and consumers,” said Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “USDA is revoking a label standard that had widespread farm and consumer support. Actions such as this take us into a Wild West situation, where anything goes and both farmers and consumers lose.”
Hoefner points out that the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), which is responsible for labeling regulations, "does not facilitate the marketing of agricultural products in a manner that is useful to stakeholders or consumers." This is bizarre, that a clear labeling system would be bad for consumers. In fact, it seems backward.
The reasoning for the revocation is that a separate entity within the USDA, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), is responsible for approving the labels and the organization believes that "there is no guarantee that a USDA-verified production/marketing claim will be approved by FSIS." Basically, their rationale for removing the labels is that there is no guarantee the USDA will work together to make sure the labels are right.
“The rationale that a strong USDA label standard for grass fed beef is not useful because it might not be recognized by a partner agency is outrageous,” said Hoefner. “It is both sad and true that these two USDA agencies often do not coordinate, and worse yet that in some cases FSIS has looked the other way, allowing particularly unscrupulous meat companies to abuse the USDA standard,” Hoefner said. “But the common sense solution is not to revoke the standard, but instead to tackle siloing and lack of interagency communication head-on.”
It seems that removing the labels all together is counter-intuitive and really only hinders the buyer.
Hoefner is pushing back. "NSAC and our member organizations believe this reversal is a detriment to a fair and transparent food system and we urge the USDA to come up with an alternative solution quickly.”
The move, seen as shocking by many advocacy groups, would mean that all meat producers will have 30 days to figure out another way to label their meat, completely up to them as to how to label it.
“Meat labeling just became, even more, confusing for farmers and consumers,” said Ferd Hoefner, Policy Director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. “USDA is revoking a label standard that had widespread farm and consumer support. Actions such as this take us into a Wild West situation, where anything goes and both farmers and consumers lose.”
Hoefner points out that the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), which is responsible for labeling regulations, "does not facilitate the marketing of agricultural products in a manner that is useful to stakeholders or consumers." This is bizarre, that a clear labeling system would be bad for consumers. In fact, it seems backward.
The reasoning for the revocation is that a separate entity within the USDA, the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), is responsible for approving the labels and the organization believes that "there is no guarantee that a USDA-verified production/marketing claim will be approved by FSIS." Basically, their rationale for removing the labels is that there is no guarantee the USDA will work together to make sure the labels are right.
“The rationale that a strong USDA label standard for grass fed beef is not useful because it might not be recognized by a partner agency is outrageous,” said Hoefner. “It is both sad and true that these two USDA agencies often do not coordinate, and worse yet that in some cases FSIS has looked the other way, allowing particularly unscrupulous meat companies to abuse the USDA standard,” Hoefner said. “But the common sense solution is not to revoke the standard, but instead to tackle siloing and lack of interagency communication head-on.”
It seems that removing the labels all together is counter-intuitive and really only hinders the buyer.
Hoefner is pushing back. "NSAC and our member organizations believe this reversal is a detriment to a fair and transparent food system and we urge the USDA to come up with an alternative solution quickly.”
Follow us on Facebook to stay updated with what's going Viral in the Alternative News scene. https://www.facebook.com/ViralAlternativeNews
By Minds.com
