USDA Trashes Organic: Pasture Not Required for Cows' Last 4 Months.

Here’s what you can do about it.

The rules for the USDA Organic label for beef are already watered down. Now, though, they’re allowing feedlot conditions for their last four months—about one-fifth of their lives. You can help reverse this by contacting the president and USDA. I’ll tell you how, including links.

The requirements for USDA Organic labeling were low enough before this. Even during grazing season, ruminants only have to get 30% of their food from grazing. Cattle must be pastured only 120 days a year.

According to the Cornucopia Institute, an advocacy organization for family farmers, there are three different models of so-called organic beef raising for USDA standards. These are quotes from Cornucopia’s position statement on the issue:

• Grass/Grain Finished

  Beef cattle are raised on pasture during the growing season for the first 6-10 months of their lives. Producers then move the animals to a feedlot (or sell them to a feedlot operator), where they are given organic grain and hay. Grain in their diet speeds their growth, while some amount of hay provides necessary roughage. By providing a high-energy grain diet, producers are able to bring their animals to slaughter weight in as little as 14 months. Many believe that consumers prefer meat from grain-finished cattle due to its fat marbling and tenderness.
  Proposed New Label: “Organic – Grain Finished”

• Grass Fed/Finished on Pasture with Supplemental Grain Feeding

  Beef cattle are raised on pasture throughout the animal’s lifespan, including the finishing period, except when pasture grazing is not possible, such as in winter. During the finishing period (the months leading up to slaughter), producers maintain their animals on pasture but bring feed, containing grain, to feeders on pasture. Animals therefore do consume grain, and could not be considered “100% grass- fed,” but they are never kept in a feedlot. The percentage of their diet that consists of grain is commonly low, and the finishing period is generally much shorter than 120 days.
  Proposed New Label: “Organic – Pasture/Grain Finished”

• 100% Grass Fed/Grass Finished

  Producers provide unlimited access to pasture and feed absolutely no grain over the lifetime of the animal. When pasture grazing is not possible, as in winter, animals are given forage-based feed such as hay. It commonly takes 2-3 years to raise a grass-fed beef cow to slaughter weight, although some 100% grass-fed producers, focusing on appropriate genetics for grazing and superior forage quality, market animals as young as 18 months of age.
  Proposed New Label: “Organic – 100% Grass-Fed”

The only standard that a reasonable person could consider organic is the last one. Grain is not a natural food for cows. It causes them gastric distress and illness—conditions that do not result in healthy meat for humans. Confining cattle for any reason other than their own comfort likewise turns the entire concept of organic on its ear.

The rest of the story here, including what you can do to help stop this fiasco.