Are you being tricked?

written by

Third Day Farm

posted on

October 12, 2022

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I see SO many well-intentioned consumers get "catfished".  It makes me sad. As I'm in conversation with customers just like you, I hear stories of families being very intentional about making good grocery store choices, only to find they've been misled to all along.

I've learned so much over the last several years about the food industry and frankly, it's disheartening.  The standards that our food industry has in place in the United States is so low.  It's shocking. In addition, they have mastered the flashy packaging, eye-catching colors, and enticing labels that market their product to a health conscious consumer.  I respect the effort of health conscious shoppers enough to share what has been learned over the last several years.

Want to know something interesting?  Because the USDA’s standards for grass-fed labeling are easily achieved, cheap imports of beef that meet “grass-fed” labeling criteria often accounts for 75-80% of annual U.S labeled grass-fed beef sales in stores.

 Crazy right?! 

This is because it’s actually legal to label beef a “product of the USA” as long as the carcass was cut up in America.  This means an animal could be raised AND harvested in another country, but still be labeled “product of the U.S”.  Therefore, this means that 75-80% of consumers THINK that they are eating grass-fed beef, supporting regenerative agriculture, making ethical food choices... but sadly, instead are helping a handful of companies make crazy profit margins, by purchasing their cheap meat (at an inflated price) that they are importing from other countries.

Their misleading labels attract customers who are doing their best to put quality, good-choice meat on the table, but sadly, they've been duped.  If grass-fed beef is important to you, it’s more critical than ever to purchase directly from the farmer.  Whether you purchase meat from our farm or any other local farmer, you are removing the middle man (the corporate giants) and getting a direct link to the people who raise your food. In many other cases -  you’re likely getting catfished by meat at the grocery store.


At Third Day Farm, we respect that you are an informed consumer and want to know how and where your food is raised!  We do our absolute best to operate with complete transparency about our process! If you have any questions along the way- don't hesitate to reach out! 

I hope you can enjoy some sunshine today!

Have a beautiful day,

-Brittany

(and the Third Day Farm Family)

grocery store

know your farmer

labels

grassfed

USDA standards

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