NEWS: Meat Labels for Sensitive Meat Suits

CULTURE: Meat Labels for Sensitive Meat Suits

Are you a compassionate carnivore? Would you prefer to eat cheerful chickens, happy hogs, and cozy cows? Those "happy cows come from California" ads are (surprise) a steaming load of manure, but interesting labels have begun appearing on some meat and egg packaging--claims like "free range" and "cage free." Now Whole Foods Market is preparing to offer a line of meat that will be labeled "animal compassionate."

This is more than marketing--Whole Foods recently banned the sale of live lobster due to welfare issues, and intends to closely audit the farmers they work with.

It's a potentially good step toward reacquainting out-of-touch consumers with the food that they eat. Albert Schweitzer, winner of the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize, is credited with having said that "until he extends the circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace," and our very own SG Twwly makes a point of compassionately raising and slaughtering animals on her hobby farm. Check out her blog post "From Day Old to Dinner," and consider her food for thought: If you couldn't kill it, you shouldn't eat it.

My first legitimate reaction to this was stating outloud: "animal compassionate? What the fuck does that mean?"

Booooooo no live lobsters.

I thought meat labels had something to do with pussy.

so how do these new labels and the new standards that go with them compare to the current usda organic standards for livestock? i could be wrong, but i was under the impression that usda organic hens were raised cage free. also, i think if you're going to use the word compassion, then you can't use the word slaughter in the same sentence. no matter what it means compassionate slaughter seems to be the biggest oxymoron i've heard in a long time.

I eat the meat of the animals I ask/pray to, first.
It's the Proto-American Way.

oh i didn't mean to imply that you weren't being compassionate. i was sorta trying to make a joke of the use of the word slaughter. i guess i didn't do a very good job w/ that. i'm not even going to touch the question of whether or not it's ethical to eat meat. as far as that's concerned i think that's better left to the individual to decide.

you rock your chickens to sleep? i didn't even know that was possible. every time i've seen a chicken it seemed like the most nervous animal ever created. and no i don't mean the ones in the stacked cages. (who can even make out a chicken in those?) i mean ones wandering around ranches and farms i've been on.

as far as organic is concerned, yeah i agree it's a foggy term right now. i had just read or seen on tv somewhere that one of the requirements for organically raised chickens was that it be raised outside of a cage. so when i see "cage-free" on a label and not "organic" it seems like a bit of a farse. i dunno, i think i have about a teaspoon of actual real knowledge on all this.

We've had these labels for eggs for some years now. Meat labelling is following.

Shouldn't eat it unless I'd kill it? I'd kill a chicken. No big deal. Or a cow. I wouldn't know how to gut them and get out the meat I want, but I'd do it. Course, I probably wouldn't be interested in whacking it over the head and slitting it's throat. Maybe blowing out its brains with a gun though. But then, having someone else do the things we don't want to do ourselves is also the American way, isn't it?

OK... On the not selling live lobster issue...
I thought the reason for selling lobsters live was that they spoil very quickly if not eaten right away.

A lot of the tissue inside lobsters starts to break down very quickly after it dies. Whether it's inhumane or not, many people are not going to pay to eat frozen lobster in a fancy restaurant as anything other than soup, and even that would be pushing it.

"Also, organic labeling doesn't necessarily mean much."

Actually, organic labelling doesn't mean anything. Yep, there are some straight up organic producers out there who strive to use nothing but chemical free means to raise their crops or animals, and they do a damn fine job of it.

Unfortunately, the majority of producers just slap an organic label on their far from organic product, because they know people see a label and usually don't read any further, and they are subject to the same laws and regulations as the legit organic producers are.

The problem is that where organic regulations exhist, the abillity and resources to enforce those standards don't. There simply are not enough inspectors to do the job. Added to that, some inspectors do a half assed job of it. So, is your organic product really organic? Likely not. Unless you get it from a local operation that you know is on the level.

So, you know the imported organic produce that you buy at the grocery? Guess what? Before it crosses the border, it's hosed down with chemicals to control foreign insect and animal species from crossing the border with it. Not so organic anymore, huh? But the label isn't removed.

Here's an interesting one...how many people really, actually, understand how the USDA beef grading system works? Check this out...

Beef Quality and Yield Grades

Nowhere does it account for the physical health of the animal. As long as a cow is still breathing and can move under its own power, regardless of its physical condition and/or health, it can be labeled USDA Grade A Prime...if the fat content is high enough, that is.

Think about that the next time you bite into a piece of cartalidge...or is that a tumor? There's no label for that, is there.

I want there to be a steak house where you see the cows slaughtered. I don't eat beef but I would eat a steak there. If I were allowed to kill the animal myself. Get that karma on my hands. Be responsible. I would savor every bite of that steak.

I don't understand how it's acceptable to eat a rare steak (which really is just charred flesh) but it's taboo to be a witness to the killing of the animal.

I could TOTALLY kick a chicken's ass.

Well, this thread became deeply depressing rather quickly.

The one thing I like about the Organic fad is that animals, if it works properly, get much more space. I just ask that we can be sure they're not getting a fate worse than death. It doesn't seem an unreasonable minimum standard.

I respectfully disagree.

Meat is something that is of deep concern to me. Am I willing to consciously kill something for my sustenance? Does this break my vow to keep the four nobles truths (no killing)?

I think the more the discussion on meat is brought up, the better.

I don't know and my lama has no unequivocal answer. He says that to order something be killed is not "acceptable" but to eat something that has been killed (as long you were not involved in the perpetration of the murder) is okay. To me, this is flimsy. His holiness, the Dalai Lama, eats meat because his physicians have requested it so that he may live longer. Above all, Buddhism is a faith, not a science or philosophy.