The Challenge of Labels

There is little doubt that our society has become disconnected from its food.  This is glaringly obvious when you tell folks that you process your own chickens on the farm.  It's met by almost everyone with "you do what?" "that's disgusting" "I couldn't stomach that." and so forth.  The fact has become more apparent when it comes to knowledge of how the food is produced and what that actually does to our food.

Nutrient density is one area where we really have not put much focus over the years as a society because we have been too concerned with finding the cheapest food possible.  We've been told by the "experts" that it's good, healthy stuff.  What has that gotten us?  A malnourished, sick society is what.  Now as the public begins to realize what has been happening behind the scenes there is a push for better quality and healthier products.  So what does corporate Ag do?  Use the labels of course!  We see them everywhere and it's not a new practice.  It's an extremely effective marketing concept.  Make your product seem as valuable as you can to garner the most sales and highest profit, even if transparency falls by the wayside.

It's no surprise that we have that natural reaction to slap labels on whatever we are doing, especially at the small, direct-market farm level.  It's the same as mentioned above, we are trying to make our product seem as valuable as we can.  Nobody is going to fault a small business for that!  It does create a challenge.  How do we verify labels at the local level?

Are there organizations providing verification for certain aspects?  Certainly, but that has its flaws as well and is often not a wise financial decision for a smaller farm.  So we end up with the farm attaching it's own labeling to describe their practices and the reason you should purchase from them.  It's only natural, folks are doing their best to sell their products that they have worked extremely hard to put out there.  But that creates the difficulties for the consumer.  Let's look at an example.

Regenerative Agriculture is the newest buzz-word that people are looking for when searching for local meats.  It's easy to say a farm implements "Regenerative Practices."  That being said, Regenerative is a pretty broad description and is also a developing practice.  Simply implementing those practices doesn't just miraculously change an operation.  It takes years to develop a process and landscape that functions at a high level.  That lands productivity directly has an influence on the products that come from it, especially in the terms of grass fed and finished beef.  Recently, the Bionutrient Institute has done some fascinating work detailing how the biodiversity in pastures brought from healthier soils has a hugely positive impact on the nutrient density of that beef.  So by using the term "Regenerative" two farms can be claiming the same benefits while being wildly different!  That makes things so tough on the consumer.

So what is there do to as a consumer?  You have to visit the farm!!  That is only true way to know and understand how your food is produced.  We welcome and encourage visits so that way folks can see the transparency behind the products and also see how the system that we have implemented for 25 years can impact the land and ultimately the product that comes from it.  You can't just bank on the label providing the value.  It's simply a word or phrase of description.  You need to see the actual product before it ends up on your plate.  Teach your kids where their food comes from and ask questions too!