Do You Trust "Certified Humane"?

The newsletter that has a lot of complaints about buzzwords and food labeling noise.

You choose your food based on labels that have not earned your trust.

For packages displaying "artisanal," “responsibly produced,” or “kid approved” marketing language, this might not seem like a big deal. When packages use third-party certifications (TPC), like “non-GMO,” “Fair Trade,” “Certified Vegan,” “kosher,” and “Certified Humane,” the stakes are higher, as is the price you pay for them. TPC are capitalism’s compromise between an unregulated marketplace and government regulation, both of which are imperfect but offer varying levels of verifiability, accountability, and consumer protection. There is so much labeling and marketing noise on food products that it’s overwhelming and hard to keep up with, especially when, to an untrained eye, regulated and unregulated language is virtually indistinguishable.

As you can imagine, I have a much longer list of complaints about the state of food labeling. If I had to pick one primary complaint, it would be that basic human, planetary, and animal rights are unique selling points rather than universal requirements. For every “Fair Trade” label that assures you that workers got paid and had decent working conditions, there are dozens that don’t. While this may be because not all companies that meet the requirements can continuously afford to pay for the certifications, it’s also because a lot of companies will try to get away with every little thing possible to keep costs down and profit margins high–including taking advantage of workers, the environment, and farmed animals.

We’ve normalized putting the burden on consumers standing in grocery store aisles or scrolling an online marketplace to choose “better” products with higher standards, but this is far too late in the supply chain to make a real impact. Buying Fair Trade Certified chocolate does not take exploitatively-produced chocolate bars off the shelf, and it doesn’t force other companies to come clean about their shady practices. This is why decades of “voting with our fork” and other individualized “solutions” have been a successful distraction from the potential for meaningful change brought about by collective action. Sorry, Michael Pollan.

I’ll be the first to admit that short of a magic wand wielded by an immortal hero that is pure of heart, I don’t have a clear solution to offer. Like a good progressive leftist overthinker, I can tell you much more about what I do not believe will fix anything, and that is more labeling. I don’t want more certifications crowding packages, attempting to reassure us that each aspect of a product is more ethical than its competitor. Regulation will never be able to keep up with the creativity of corporations and well-paid advertising agencies. I don’t want people feeling guilty that they can’t afford to buy Fair Trade or Certified Humane goods. I do want centralized systems to have the governance, resources, and responsibility to ensure that exploitation is no longer the default. I’m aware that this is wishful thinking for any point in time, but in the present era of the US massively deregulating every industry that has unraveled decades of slow but continued progress overnight, I may as well be pushing for that magic wand.

We live in the information age, but we are still so far from living in a transparent age. Darkness thrives in the dark and instead of turning on the lights, we’re leaving it up to advocates and whistleblowers to light a match here and there. For every match that doesn’t blow out with the wind of corporate cover-up, we get a story like this one about Alexandre Family Farm. This brings us back to labels and oversight organizations that have not earned our trust. Specifically, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Certified Humane, the National Dairy FARM Program, Organic Trust Plus, and Validus.

In USDA Confirms Animal Abuse and Cruelty at Alexandre Family Farm; Dairy Now Admits Wrongdoing; Legal Case Moves Forward, Farm Forward details the numerous allegations of Alexandre violating various organic and animal welfare standards. This is an article (estimated 4-minute read time) that I would highly recommend adding to your list. Not for trauma porn or as part of a vegan mindtrick, but because it lists some of the allegations that have been substantiated against a farm that presents itself to the marketplace with all of the right buzzwords; “America’s First Certified Regenerative Dairy Grass-Pastured Organic A2/A2,” “Eco-Dairy,” “Pasture-Raised,” “Certified Humane,” and many other “key differentiators.”

If every single person who reads this essay went vegan today, the cruelty inherent to the industrialized dairy and meat industries would unfortunately remain steadfast. Much like letting consumers decide between Fair Trade chocolate and chocolate produced with enslaved child labor in grocery store aisles, going vegan is an action that, separate from systemic change, will do very little to address industries operating with exploitation as the default. Buying power isn’t insignificant, but last month was my 11-year veganniversary, and in over a decade, my abstinence from animal meat, dairy, and eggs has not changed my tax dollars supporting the government subsidies those industries subsist on. I am highly aware that veganism does not opt me out of culpability; it is simply an ethical framework through which I engage with our world, the bare minimum I feel I can do given my knowledge of what animals experience at the hands of my human peers.

Until we find the magic wand to detangle ourselves and our government from animal agriculture and other inherently cruel industries, I urge you to find your framework. Actively push for transparency whenever possible–sign petitions, boycott, support nonprofits and advocates, research and ask questions, bother your government representatives, read whistleblower reports, talk to the people around you, share information, protest, rescue animals, volunteer your time. Do not accept buzzwords and clever marketing at face value. Do not give the benefit of the doubt to companies that have done absolutely nothing to deserve your trust.