April 25, 2025
Eco-Conscious Food Labels
An important part of shrinking our ecological footprints is making informed decisions about the products we consume — in many cases, the things we literally consume. Making informed decisions about what we eat means understanding the terminology and labeling that affect these choices. Organic: For something to be organic, the producer has to do more than just avoid using chemicals in pesticides and fertilizers. Organic growers are required to protect soil quality through things like rotating crops, limiting how much they plow their land, and planting cover crops to limit erosion. For animal products to be labeled organic, the animals that produce them must have a certain amount of access to pasturage, fresh air, and sunshine. Because of the requirements for something to be organic, we as consumers are exposed to fewer potentially toxic substances when we eat organic foods, and farmers are able to preserve valuable resources, like soil. For more information, you can read USDA’s “Introduction to Organic Practices.” Natural: If something is labeled “all-natural,” that does not mean that it is organic or even antibiotic- or hormone-free. It simply means that nothing synthetic or artificial has been added, such as flavorings or food colorings. This helps us avoid putting things in our bodies when we don’t know what they are.
Antibiotic-free: This is a label applied to animal products and means pretty much exactly what you would think it would mean — the animals that produce the products are raised without antibiotics or artificial hormones. This is important because antibiotics are often overused on factory farms, which can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria. This means that when a human gets infected with the same bacteria, there is a higher chance that the antibiotics will be less effective.
Cage-free vs. free-range vs. pastured-raised: A standard practice for industrially farmed chickens is to put them in cages for their entire lives. If eggs or something else are labeled as “cage-free,” that means that they were produced by animals who weren’t in cages. It doesn’t guarantee anything past that. “Free-range” means that the animals have a certain amount of access to an outdoors pasture area, but it doesn’t necessitate that they ever go out in this area. “Pasture-raised” means that the animals are allowed to graze and forage in a pasture for a significant part of their lives.
Of course, there are many more terms than these, but I thought these would be a good place to start, as these are some of the more common or important ones and have given me the most confusion in the past. I hope this is useful for you!
—Neesa Peak, Eco-Actions Editor