I turned off the Colbert Report last night too early to see this segment with Jonathan Safran Foer, discussing his book Eating Animals. Which I plan to read soon!
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Jonathan Safran Foer | ||||
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Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Let Them Eat Bacon
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4 comments:
I do not agree with him that the terms mean nothing. When you see local growers who practice diverse animal husbandry, you realize that there are ways to raise animals that are entirely unlike big ag. I know growers whose chickens and other livestock are absolutely "free range," "grass-fed" and so on. They struggle, and are too few and far between (with too few supports), but they are doing good work and they take great care of the animals they raise.
I haven't read the book yet, so I'm not sure, but I was assuming he meant that they don't mean anything legally, the way organic does, because they aren't regulated. Big ag could be claiming free-range, etc., and there's nothing we could do about it except a p.r. campaign.
An example of this is "local" -- Gold n Plump is pushing itself as from local family farms, but I'd be willing to bet that many of their chickens come from confinement and an unpleasant life.
All that to say that buying from a trusted source, like a co-op or direct from a farmer you've met at a farmer's market or through a CSA, is the only way to be sure.
Yes, I'm looking forward to reading the book...I'm always kind of fighting against collapsing all distinctions (which people do with the organic label, too) and (at the same time) being very wary about dubious claims, such as that Gold N' Plump one. So much work, figuring out how to get real food on the table.
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