I Bet you define *grass fed* way different from the USDA

[nosmokes]

OK, i know they're bought and paid for by the huge agro/chem corps, and have absolutely no stake at all in the interests of a family farmer, but this is so ludicrous i don't see how they can even say it with a straight face. but then again, it's bushco, and the old parameters of decency and personal responsibility, self respect are gone, dead and buried.
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original

USDA Says Products Can Be Labeled 'Grass-Fed' Even if Animals Are Feedlot Raised & Fed Hormones & Antibiotics

* Grass-Fed Rule Angers Farmers
By MARIAN BURROS
The New York Times, July 26, 2006
Straight to the Source

THE Agriculture Department has proposed allowing animals to be labeled grass-fed even if they never saw a pasture and were fed antibiotics and hormones.

When Martin E. O'Connor, chief of the standardization branch of the department's livestock and feed program, explained the proposed rule at a conference of the American Grassfed Association in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Friday, members were angry.

Producers of grass-fed animals have waited for years for the department to develop certification standards and procedures, like the organic certification and seal, to distinguish grass-fed animals from conventionally raised animals. When department officials asked for input four years ago, association members replied that the rule should require that an animal be fed on pastures except in emergency circumstances where its life would be threatened, and also that the animal should be free from antibiotics and hormones.

The rule for the voluntary standard that Mr. O'Connor described, which was first announced in May, would require only that the animals be fed a diet that is mother's milk or 99 percent grass, legumes and forage, which is anything taken by browsing or grazing. The rule, which applies to all grass-fed ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats and bison, is silent on the pasture issue.

[Lindacooks]

1. Typical repuke. Up is down, black is white, war is peace,

hormones are grown in pastures.

[Ezlivin]

2. Grazing cattle on artificial turf is next

This administration is destroying the English language. Words do not have their apparent meaning any longer.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less."

"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."

"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master - that's all."

[lapfog_1]

3. Funny you should mention this today

While driving into work, I just heard a commercial for McDonalds that said "corn and grass fed beef". And I thought to myself when I heard that "hmmm... that's the first time I've heard the term 'grass fed beef' when talking about hamburger or any other beef product, what's up with that?"

So now I know.

I didn't really expect that McDonalds had suddenly switched to using only beef raised "the old fashioned way".

[hedgehog]

4. You wouldn't believe what the food industry does with the term "natural"

They also claim that such processes as fermentation (to make cheese and yogurt) are the same as the latest frankenfood. It all involves "chemicals", don'tcha know. Plus, they keep telling use that genetically altered food is perfectly safe to eat. That's not the problem, bozos! the problem is that your genetically altered plants and animals are altering the ecosystem!

[burf]

5. What do you expect from a government agency

that says you can butcher a chicken, freeze it as hard as a bowling ball, thaw it out, and call it a "fresh" chicken? It's been going on for years.

[jilln]

6. There is no decency in animal agriculture anyway.

This is only the tip of the iceberg.