Two months after USDA terminated a voluntary program for labeling grass-fed beef, nine farm and consumer groups asked the department to spell out the conditions for using the term. In a letter, the groups said USDA “must seize the opportunity and resist calls to cheapen” the label. The now-defunct standard said 99 percent of feed consumed by livestock after weaning had to be grass, forbs (herbaceous flowering plants) or forage. Cattle raised exclusively or almost totally on grass yield beef that is higher in conjugated linoleic acid, long-chain omega-3 fats and antioxidants than cattle raised in feedlots, where rations often are 80 percent grass or forage, said the letter. “Consumers seek out grass-fed beef products for varied but specific reasons that include perceived environmental and health benefits.”
“Percentage claims, such as ’80 precent grassfed’ or ’90 percent grassfed’ would mislead consumers and dilute the meaning of the term to ‘grassfed’ to an extent that would threaten the livelihood of the farmers and ranchers who created the grassfed market,” says the letter.
USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service ended the grass-fed label in January, six years after it set up the program, saying the label “does not facilitate the marketing of agricultural products in a manner that is useful to stakeholders or consumers.” In addition, AMS said it could not guarantee the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which oversees livestock packing plants, would use the same guidelines. In their letter, the farm and consumer groups turned to FSIS with the request to use the same guidelines as AMS had.