Reader letter: animal welfare labeling
Submitted by An Animal-Friendly Life
As I’ve sometimes mentioned, I do a lot of writing and activism “off-site,” as I sometimes share, such as writing letters to the editor, columns and articles for websites and magazines, and of course my work with the Boston Vegan Association. I also receive a lot of correspondence through the site itself, and I try to respond to as much of it as I can. Sometimes I think that the responses would make good posts, but I haven’t been able to follow through on that most of the time (though occasionally these messages will inspire some of my subsequent posts).
Here’s one I received this weekend (both letters have been lightly edited for errors and readability):
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Good morning,
I am ____________ from Switzerland, a former exchange student from Pennsylvania. In Switzerland, we have many food labels that guarantee the wellbeing of the food animals and ensure certain practices or prohibits others. Some give the animals more space to move, others leave the calf with the cow for several weeks or otherwise raise livestock in a natural manner. What food labels do exist in America? Do many people buy them and are they much more expensive? What are the specialties and characteristics of American food labels?
As you can see, this letter comes from a person who probably did not take much (if any) time to read through recent posts and get a feel for my views, so I thought it would be helpful to share my answer publicly, in case others passing through these parts think along the same lines as this Swiss writer:
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My favorite label is the one that says “VEGAN” on it, assuring me that no animals were exploited in the making of the product. There are a variety of applications, whether the word “VEGAN” appears on the front of the package, in parentheses before a list of ingredients, or whether a trademarked logo from a certifying organization is printed on the packaging. You will see this on both food and bodycare products, though many vegan products are not actually labeled as such, so it’s not always the best way to know (I still read a lot of ingredient labels). A lot of vegans like buying products that say “VEGAN” on them simply to support that type of labeling.
A lot of the labels here mean very little, if anything, in terms of animal welfare. I don’t have much interest in those labels, anyway, as I don’t believe it’s acceptable for us to eat animals or animal products regardless of how the animals are treated. They are sentient beings with certain interests they share in common with us and, where those interests are equal, we ought to give them equal consideration, which means not treating them as property, or otherwise using them as a means to our ends. It’s simply not necessary to use animals and therefore we should strive to avoid consuming products derived from them whenever possible.
Sorry to not get into more detail than that. Realize as you do your research that manufacturers use deceptive labeling all the time, though certain companies are trying to standardize labeling so that you have a better sense of what you get.
Regardless, I hope you will consider veganism. Even if you don’t accept my premise that it’s wrong to use animals as means to our ends, do be aware that, regardless of how animals are treated, they are simply commodities to the industry. They are genetically manipulated for maximum efficiency and killed well short of their natural lifespans when they are no longer profitable, including male chicks born at hatcheries (where they are destroyed or thrown out instantly because they do not lay eggs) and, of course, the calves that forcefully impregnated cows bear, who become veal. Don’t forget the cows themselves become hamburger once their “productivity” declines.
Please consider that animals are not merely protein machines whose purpose in life is to produce food for us. They are individuals with inner lives and interests, and our subjugation of them is a sad reflection on our species.
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