Awhile back I wrote that the USDA was stealing the term Naturally Grown. Well, they have done so. Apparently there was no need for them to bother listening to comments from the people. No need to wait for the rule to be implemented. They just went ahead and stopped the use of Certified Naturally Grown on meat labels. I hate saying “I told you so”, I really do, especially since I’m the one, along with all CNG farmers and consumers, who’s taking a beating here…
The scoop on the Naturally Raised claim is that the USDA has asked for comments on a proposed Naturally Raised claim standard. They have it in the federal registry and are asking for comments until 1/28/2008.
The proposed standard is to be voluntary but it is anything but that for small farmers - much like a voluntary NAIS. The USDA is already rejecting meat labels with the Certified Naturally Grown logo. I discovered this when I submitted our most recent label design for our Sugar Mountain Farm All Natural Pastured Pork Hot Dogs last fall before the comment period even started.
Despite the facts that:
1) it is a voluntary standard,
2) the comment period has not yet closed and
3) the rule is not yet implemented,
the USDA is already rejecting Certified Naturally Grown as a violation of the proposed rule. They told me I may not use the CNG logo on our new label. Interestingly, they had previously accepted our use of the the CNG logo back in the beginning of 2007 for our last meat label design. Thus this is a change in policy.
The worst part is that not only are they stealing and destroying the already existing Certified Naturally Grown label that was created by small farmers to differentiate themselves from the mass produced factory farms but the USDA is also diluting the standard - the USDA version totally fails to cover the real issues such as access to pasture and natural quality of life. The USDA proposal also puts in restrictions on diet that are weird such as saying that pigs and chickens can’t drink milk or eat cheese - two very good foods for both of these species. The USDA’s proposed rule is written such that it specifically benefits large confinement feeding operations so they can use the term while making it harder for small farmers who are really Naturally Raising their livestock.
Like with Certified Organic, once again, the USDA steals from the small farmers to give to Big Ag - the anti-Robin Hood of agriculture. Now is your chance to be heard so go to that link and response - jump through all the hurdles to get your comments into the registry. They appear to purposefully make it difficult to leave comments so don’t give up - work your way through the process. Once again, here’s the link for leaving comments on the new proposed Naturally Raised rule.
Update #1: ChicagoTribute has an article about this where you can leave comments.
Update #2: I had originally started writing this post in response to an Ethicurean.com post which Bonnie at Ethicurean liked and posted as an article over there. Interestingly, one commenter didn’t seem to get the point that there is an existing organization and thinks we’re crybabies for not wanting the USDA involved. Given that I had a spat of USDA incoming visitors today to all my web sites I suspect that “Miki” is really a USDA mole - something we’ve seen often here at NoNAIS.org. Hopefully this mole won’t try terrorism as has happened in the past when USDA minions get over zealous.
Update #3: See Naturally Raised Mammillary and get your comments in before the 1/28 deadline.
If there ever was a regime in the US, akin to the Nazi’s, this is it!!! The only things missing are the Panzers and hand granades. Like it or not, we are at war with the USDA and the BLM, who, IMO, are just as corrupt as the Hitler regime.
I am willing to serve jail time in opposition to this unconstitutional diatribe.
What about all of you? What are you willing to sacrifice to oppose being “owned” by our government?
Comment M.D. in Wis. — January 9, 2008 @ 8:18 pm
If the USDA is rejecting labels with CNG before the rule is in place and is still accepting comments, then they are really indicating that the comment process will be ignored and the decision has already been made.
This is just another indication that the USDA is agriculture’s biggest enemy. CNG labels and allowing diseased Canadian beef infected with BSE free access to this country also shows that the USDA is an enemy of the US consumer as well.
We as small farmers need to devise a new term for Certified Naturally Grown that the USDA will have to waste more millions of taxpayer money to squash. Also discourage every consumer you can to boycott all restaurants and grocery stores that do not offer source verified US born and raised meat.
Hail Bush!
Comment DB — January 9, 2008 @ 8:48 pm
How do I tell my egg girls to stop eating worms and other bugs or they become unnatural chickens? Truth be known I suspect the bugs have a lot to do with my hens often laying into their early teens.
Cheese and whey? I couldn’t think of anything better to add nutrition to a pigs diet. Chickens like it too. A quart of cottage cheese is devoured instantly. Milk and yogurt rapidly disappears.
This is really getting sickening.
Comment Sue F — January 10, 2008 @ 4:07 am
does the goverment have the rite to own and tell people what words that they can use in promoting a product if the statment is truth? i would hope not.
Comment nick — January 10, 2008 @ 6:07 am
here is the comment I left but most likely will not be approved…
I wish the USDA would stop doing the American public so many favors. We know what we want and it is not factory raised meats. But, once again, the USDA defiles the name of “raised naturally” or “organic” or “pasture raised” making it difficult for those who do not add antibiotics or other additives to the animal as it grows. Once again, the USDA decides that corporate interests are more important than the little guy who raises pasture fed meat….well, when it comes to defending this country from terrorists, let corporate ag go to the middle east and take out Sadam and his ilk. No, it will be the individual little guy who raises good quality meats that will be in uniform. But Sadam has nothing on the USDA who continues to run rampant despite the fact they know the populace is against NAIS and other idiotic programs put out by the USDA.
Comment SUSAN — January 10, 2008 @ 6:48 am
ok here is an idea on how to label your meat raised by you…since folks already know your reputation, or if not, you can send out a publication or flyer telling how your raise your meat…on the label put, wait for it, it is so ingenious, the UASSDA certainly can’t get around this labeling…ok, her it is, so smart so simple…….
“A PIG RAISED BY SUGAR MT FARM”
Comment SUSAN — January 10, 2008 @ 6:52 am
You can go right here:
link
and click on the little part that says “send a comment or submission”
Hope this works for you too!
Comment Evelyn — January 10, 2008 @ 7:39 am
That is a real pisser! I just joined CNG this past year and got our certification for our farm here. I dont see how they can get away with this. What the USDA is doing is illegal! I am awriting my senators!
Comment M N — January 10, 2008 @ 7:46 am
OK then - they want to steal “naturally raised” so lets come up with antoher name they cannot possibly steal. “Small Farm Raised” - or “traditionaly rasied by small farm” (TRSF) - “Small Farm Traditionally raised” and put our educational material on what Tradition means - Traditionally raised means methods of raising meat animals that provide them the ability to live a wholesome life before slaughter pre-big ag methods of raising meat animals. And of course define that small farm means under x amount of each type of animal. We can all play this game and the smart consumers who are keeping up with this will educate those who might be led astray by BIg-Ag buddies. “Small Farm Smart Consumer’s Choice Meat” - maybe a website address on meat label so consumers can look up what environment the animals were raised in.
Comment Concerned Consumer — January 10, 2008 @ 7:47 am
So, unless we pay the USDA’s extortion fees, if we have animals that are raised on pasture, free to go in and out at will, are not fed junk but given some good products like our excess dairy..etc., etc., etc., we cannot say that our things are naturally grown.
But if the big guys pay, even when their animals get little or no pasture time, are still kept confined…yadda yadda, THEY can carry the naturally grown lable.
Only the kind of sense the USDA and our government can make.
Comment Kim P. — January 10, 2008 @ 7:50 am
I posted a comment on the newspaper article (though it hasn’t shown up yet) and want to just mention one thing here. The Sodium lactate they mention is claimed to be a natural salt that is derived from a natural fermentation product, lactic acid. What is its source? Corn or beets. We all know, or should know by now, that all conventionally grown and used corn is GE/GMO, same with sugar beets (if you are buying sugar but cane sugar not beet sugar).
[Your comment is up on the Chicago Tribune. People, do post comments both to the Tribune, to the USDA and also note that the Ethicurean made mention of this as well. The last is a good read and very pro-small farmer. Eating SOLE food as they put it. -WJ]
Comment Henwhisperer — January 10, 2008 @ 7:52 am
Not sure who left comment #9, but, can I use that? I just went through all of the pages on my website and changed from “natural” and any derivatives of the word, to a description of what we do and how we do it.
i would gladly start the marching mantra of “Small Farm Traditionally raised” (SFTR) and put it on my website!
I’ve had enough of the USDA. I will simply sell to those that know me and let my reputation do the rest.
Comment patrick weber — January 10, 2008 @ 8:01 am
Hate to beat a dead horse but…I asked Ron Paul (again) in Concord the other night to bring up NAIS in a national forum and state why he is opposed to it.
He mentioned “yes he needs to do that”.
If you favor another candidate
ask them to come out PUBLICLY against NAIS. (You may have to educate them) Ask them their opinion when they are campaigning in front of crowds…You may want to ask them first if they support the Constitution…If any of you are campaigning explain to your co-workers WHY this must be defeated. Print out NONAIS
FLYERS, highlight the relevant sound bite parts and hand them out to the crowds. If you learn your candidate isn’t against NAIS or starts talking in circles about “protecting American people blah blah…
get another candidate.
Call the campaign headquarters and ask for the candidates position on NAIS, report back here…
Approach media cameras with NONAIS placards, get on TV, give the reporters nonais flyers.
We still face a lack of awareness from the general population…many people will dismiss this as a “farmer issue” and do not see it as a civil liberties issue…educate them now or lose your rights.
Comment Bob Constantine — January 10, 2008 @ 8:58 am
In the UK they have a new-ish campaign “Fair Trade For Farmers”–meaning that farmers in the UK need as much help and fair pricing as coffee/chocolate/sugar farmers do in the third world. This label and campaign is beginning to receive wider public recognition that the consumers must support local farmers first or risk loosing them, the agriculture and countryside they preserve by growing the foods we eat.
As much as I like the “Certified Naturally Grown” ethos and label, it has been largely meaningless for some time. When Agricorps sell everything as “All Natural” or “Made with Natural Ingredients” and you know they are full of industrial synthesized components the term “Natural” has been washed-out.
I fear “Locally Grown” will be another washout soon. In fact, I’ve already seen it in some large supermarkets where products have been so labeled which were in fact not even close to local.
We have to gain the edge some how. Give the consumer something the USDA and Agribusinesses cannot–an experience. We have to become relationship marketers. Selling ourselves first, before our product. What the consumer is looking for is trust–something the government and food industry hasn’t been able to deliver much of.
If you don’t have the time, skills, or ability to forge alliances with consumers, than form a cooperative and get it done that way. By banding together into Food Security Coalitions–or some such thing in a given area–you can market your products directly to the public in an arena of trust and knowledge on a local scale. The best way for consumers to trust farmers, how they farm and their products is to visit their farm–an experience. Not all consumers want to do that.
We have to make it happen as much as possible. You don’t need a label on your food if people are beating a path to your door because you have a welcoming attitude, a great product and honesty on your side. I know this all sounds like work. Work that takes us away from growing or tending livestock. If that’s the case, then we’re defeated.
We need to forge a new paradigm. We are paving the way for the collapse of global food distribution–we have to, it’s going to collapse anyway in one form or another. Granted, having a CNG label on your latest hot dogs or prize winning beans helps draw consumers to your product, helps educate them. But the rules are changing we have to play the game differently. We have to educate the consumer as farmers, growers, chefs about local, sustainable, healthy foods which help support us and the community. We have to teach consumers that labels are what faceless corporations and governments put on foods, that the words are largely meaningless and empty.
Provenance is spread by word of mouth and relationships. As a child, when I went with mum to the butchers we didn’t need to ask WHERE the meat came from, but you might as WHO grew which. You went to a certain butcher because they dealt with so and so or made their own sausages. That was Hartford, CT in the 70’s–where a huge farmer’s market was held in the center of the city every week: not that long ago.
So, we can devise all the new terms we want, design all kinds of new labels to use–there’s nothing to say Agri-industry and the USDA won’t steal those too or negate them in some way. It would be better to pool our money together for a full page add in the Wall Street Journal, or regular ad in the local rag to educate consumers, and sel the most important product we raise–ourselves. Everything after that is easy.
Comment Podchef — January 10, 2008 @ 9:32 am
I left this comment over on your farm blog but figure I will lieve it hear too……….
Why is the governmnt even defining words????? I thought that was the province of dictionaries. Governments job is to make war, not words. This is all so absurd. First organic becomes polluted. Now naturally raised becomes confinement fed. Luvelly.
What all this says to me is buy locally from farmers you know who are in our community. That way we keep our dollars locally rather than sending them to Cargill, Smithfield, Tyson and their friends.
By the way. I love your label Walt. I just wish you lived closer so I could buy from you. I saw you dont ship. Why?
[We don’t ship most of all because we aren’t able to meet the local demand within our own 100 mile or so radius for our pastured pork. I’m not sure what the regulations are for shipping meat or how to go about doing so. I imagine it would have to be overnighted and packed with dry ice or something. The cost seems prohibitive. Another important issue is I would like you, and everyone, to buy locally and support the farms in your area, especially the small farmers. By doing so you help keep money, jobs and open land in your community. That is of great value. Cheers, -WalterJ]
Comment Angie Ericson — January 10, 2008 @ 9:38 am
As a consumer I do not like the USDA doing this. They are out of wack. It is an obvious ploy to hand the market to the big producers while cutting out the smaller farmers who can not get through all the hoops and paperwork or the costs.
My solution is to buy local. That also puts more money in the pockes of the farmer and it often saves me money while I get better quality to.
Comment Mark Venton — January 10, 2008 @ 2:34 pm
Podchef and others:
Any time you see a “Local” label on a product you KNOW can’t be grown locally, whether it be for reasons of climate or season, challenge the produce manager. Tell him you want the sign changed. Do this each and every time you are in any store that sells fresh food.
We have our Shaw’s produce manager watching for us. Funny how the signs are accurately reflecting the products now. We once did have to go over the managers head to get some correction for some fruit labeled “local” on the big sign, when each and every apple was labeled from “Washington State”. Go figure.
Sally
Comment Sally Beckwith — January 10, 2008 @ 4:31 pm
Bob and all other Ron Paul supporters; Ron Paul is kicking butt on the debate tonight. He just gave them a ration of dung saying “Are you telling me I’m not electable? Who are you to tell me that?” in so many words.
He’s getting a lot more air time, too.
I do believe Fox News has heard the Ron Paul supporters! yeah.
Comment Henwhisperer — January 10, 2008 @ 9:30 pm
Label something “Local” in NH and it had better be grown in this state. Our AG dept. is very proactive enforcing that little law. They only problem is that a pig grown at Walter’s in VT is more local to me than a pig grown in Manchester. Still all in all it’s a good rule. So if I were to buy a pig from Walter I’d have to call it a Near pig or “not so far away” pig.
However the USDA is way off base with natural labels. Pigs and poultry naturally eat meat. They will even seek it out. I even have a couple of hens that are almost cat like in their mouse hunting. Natural means they get to be what they are, eat what they eat.
Comment Sue F — January 11, 2008 @ 4:07 am
The politico web map had our little town voting for a bit over 26% for Dr. Paul. Must be a nest of us tucked in the hills.
I do understand how many can get trapped by the health insurance thing. The hospitals and Drs. here treat you like dirt without it. When I point out that the health insurance will become a mandate that you have to pay for they get all quiet and stare blankly. They don’t have it to pay. Still out of luck.
Frankly this area never recovered from the first George B. A second hit will probably finish the middle class in this immediate area. I have never had so many people asking about eggs and meat as I have had in the last few months. Problem is they don’t understand why I can’t match Wally world’s prices. The eggs they understand, they will venture the $3.50 and taste the difference. I can’t keep up with the demand. Chicken and turkey meat on the other hand costs me a whole lot more to raise than .39 cents a lb. While I can give eggs to the hardcore skeptic I can’t afford to give away a bird. Too much time and work and feed. I’m a little soft and even allow my meat mutant chickens to live the warm season and be birds. Processing isn’t an easy thing. I can’t do the killing, my husband can but I can see it weighs on him a bit too. My muscles ache after getting 30 or so birds into the freezer. Some of it I know is just plain old tension, I don’t take a life lightly. Lot of it is just plain old hard and not very nice work. So the only birds that have left here have been given away to those who really had a need for food. Ok, one was given to an old Russian lady who so completely looks like my Grandmother….She got so dreamy eyed talking about being able to eat a real fresh hen once again. Something she hadn’t tasted since she came to this country. Next visit got her a bird. I used to do some of her heavy work when she was around in the summer. Her kids didn’t help. Miss her. She really looks and sounds like my Baba.
I ramble…
I’m really beginning to think like a lot of the old timers here who think a depression would be the best thing for this country. Reset the clock and start everybody off on the same footing. Harsh. I know it is. I probably can’t begin to imagine being born in the baby boomer heydays but I’ve got to wonder what is going to be left to my kid. Something is very broken.
On the bottom of every ballot is a blank line where you can write in somebody. If I have to I will keep writing in Dr. Paul. If nothing else this was the first time in ages where I actually felt good about going to vote.
Comment Sue F — January 11, 2008 @ 8:35 am