"The new guidelines from the Agriculture Department encourage third-party assessments of environment-related claims, which have come under fire."
"Climate-smart. Regeneratively grown. Sustainable.
If you’re wondering about all those labels on meat and poultry at the grocery store, so too, it turns out, is the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The agency, in an update to its industry guidelines published this week, signaled that it’s paying closer attention to how companies back up the new environmental buzzwords and said it “strongly encourages” meat and poultry purveyors to get those claims verified by independent third parties.
Food companies have long had to get Agriculture Department approval for their labels. That has applied terms like cage free eggs or grass fed beef. The last update to the guidelines was in 2019."
Somini Sengupta reports for the New York Times August 29, 2024.