The Grass Fed Standard Must be Linked to Confinement Issue

REPORTER:  Speaking for the American Grassfed Association, you said, "We feel very strongly that any grassfed standard must address the issue of confinement as an integral part of that standard: otherwise the label will lose its integrity."  We have two issues at play - the feeding regimen and confinement.  Why do you see them as integral to your definition of grassfed?

DR. WHISNANT:  The USDA has chosen to address only the feeding regimen in its proposed standard.  Yet, I do believe that the consumer would define the term “grassfed” to mean an animal raised on pasture.  If passed into regulation as it now reads you could  have animals raised in feedlots, fed harvested forage and corn silage, fed antibiotics, implanted with synthetic growth hormones and be legally labeled “Grass fed”. It would be taking the family farmed sustainable model and applying the same label to a factory farmed feedlot model.  The feed yard need only change what is technically put in the trough.   That is disingenuous to the consumer who would choose the product not just for the perceived healthiness but because they would support sustainable systems that they believe are more humane to the animal, more environmentally friendly and in support of local family farms.