Originally published at Effect Measure
Last fall the animal slaughter giant Tyson Foods, Inc. was selling chickens with a USDA approved label, “raised without antibiotics.” Some people thought that was a bit misleading insofar as Tyson routinely used ionophores in their feed designed to prevent a fungal disease in the birds. The USDA classes ionophores as antibiotics. The agency had “overlooked” the additive and when it was forcefully brought to their attention, they asked Tyson to add words to their label indicating it used no antibiotics that could cause antibiotic resistance in humans. Tyson added the words in December but never admitted to being at any impropriety:
“We stand by the truthfulness of our product labels and remain fully committed to our Raised Without Antibiotics chicken program. We also expect no disruption in service to our customers.” (Tyson statement via Natural Foods for You)
That was good enough for the USDA. Except even the new label was a lie, and Tyson’s competitors caught them at it, forcing the USDA to cancel approval of even the amended label:
Inspectors from the U.S. Department of Agriculture routinely found Tyson Foods Inc. gave chickens advertised as “raised without antibiotics” an antibiotic that can be used in humans, on top of another the company said it gave, the agency said Tuesday.
A statement from Richard Raymond, an undersecretary for food safety at the USDA, said the world’s largest meat producer had used gentamicin on its poultry. Gentamicin has been used for more than 30 years in the United States to treat a variety of infections in humans. The federal government also stores the antibiotic as a treatment for plague and other biological agents. (AP via Manufacturing.net)
The USDA has now sent Tyson a letter stating that the label’s claim that the chickens were “raised without antibiotics” could no longer be considered “truthful and accurate.” Ya think?
The USDA undersecretary for food safety had originally said more, adding that the use of gentamicin produced a public health concern, presumably on the basis of the potential to promote antibiotic resistance. That went too far for Tyson, who complained to someone higher up:
The USDA issued a statement Tuesday rescinding an earlier comment from [the USDA undersecretary] that use of gentamicin raised a public health concern. Tyson Foods Vice President Archie Schaffer said Wednesday that Raymond spoke in error and changed his statement after being contacted by the company. Schaffer said “the vast majority of the industry does exactly the same thing” as Tyson. (AP via Manufacturing.net
What does this mean, exactly? That gentamicin is not a public health concern because all the other companies add it, too? I guess that makes sense, in a Bush administration kind of way. Better retract the USDA statement. Tyson’s new defense also relies on some pretty delicate word parsing. They use gentamicin on the eggs, before the chicken is born, thus. they claim, not used during the “raising” of the chicken. Tyson defines “raising” as starting with the second day of life. I guess when it comes to agribusiness giants, life doesn’t start at conception.
Tyson announced it is “voluntarily” withdrawing the label. Which is more than the USDA did, apparently, its hand having been forced by Tyson’s competitors organized into the Orwellian-named Truthful Labeling Coalition (including Perdue Farms Inc., Sanderson Farms Inc. and Livingston, California-based Foster Farms). Perdue and Sanderson had sued over a label they considered “clearly false and misleading,” and a federal judge agreed, ordering Tyson to stop them from running any advertisements with the claim last month. Now, belatedly, the USDA is acting.
Maybe Tyson’s new label should read, “Chicken raised without serious USDA oversight.” That, at least, would be truthful and not misleading.
