By Jennifer Smith, ASU sustainable food systems graduate student
The Model USDA conference in Tempe, Arizona concluded with a new sense of purpose to commit to food policy reforms. I had the honor of role-playing as a journalists for Scenario E: Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) food label guidance for voluntary claims. The FSIS, an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), plays a critical role in safety for the public’s health regarding meat, poultry, and processed eggs. Not an agency that is talked about a lot when thinking of the several agencies of the USDA, but certainly an important one. Through our 3 days together, students got to participate in professional job roles representing federal agencies, advocacy organizations, universities, and private companies.
The student playing the role of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Aamna Anwer, set the stage early Saturday morning with her expectations of an outcome that was to be reached by Sunday afternoon. Shortly after, introductions were made by each member of the scenario sharing recurring themes of transparency in labeling, consumer trust, and science-based labeling.
A special guest appearance was made by Ashley Grabb, Assistant Director of the Agriculture and Food Systems Support Division at the Arizona Department of Agriculture. She provided the room with insights on how to navigate the impacts of voluntary labeling on many levels of the food system. She raised awareness on several topics that will be discussed in the days to come: Where does funding come from? Who regulates the training of inspectors? and many more pondering thoughts.
Day one deliberations were centered on collaborative problem solving with the working group consisting of representatives from FSIS, U.S. Codex Office, Perdue, the FDA, and other smaller organizations. The topic of discussion was how the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) can partner with universities like Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, and Colorado State University to improve the science-based voluntary claims on meat and poultry packaging.
On the other side of the room, the stakeholders were hard at work generating potential solutions on how to regulate voluntary claims. Cameron Carter, role-playing as a farmer and co-founder of Mindful Meats, and Diego Jalate Ortega, role-playing as the Executive Director of the Food Alliance (FA), were able to communicate effectively. Diego ensured that the smaller farms were heard just as loud as the larger farms. Cameron wanted the labeling to be simplified but did appreciate the labeling characteristics that Diego was putting forth. Ashlyn Baldwin, role-playing as a Colorado State University professor, sparked the topic of defining rural as well as small, medium, and large farm sizes.
This was the meat and potatoes I was waiting for: What are the voluntary claims that need to be regulated and how will those be regulated and accounted for? The following are the claims that were discussed amongst the stakeholders: grass-fed/ vegetarian diet, antibiotic free during production, cage-free, pasture raised, hormone free, humanely raised, sustainably farmed, regenerative farming, carbon free, and locally farmed. As you can tell the list of voluntary claims got dragged on in my opinion. If the general public is not educated on regenerative farming, then how can we expect the consumer to understand the definition of cage-free?
Now the magic is really coming together with both groups deep into discussion, but not so fast; a crisis has struck the members! The U.S. meat exports can no longer come into the European Union unless the U.S. follows the strict guidelines the EU has in place for its meat and poultry claims, like grass-fed and free range. After the working group conducted research, the decision was made that not a lot of meat and poultry be exported to the EU for this to become an issue. The crisis was thankfully avoided quickly. I spoke with Cameron about how this would potentially impact his family farm, “We do not have the means (to export to the EU). Percentage wise, it is not a big deal, more of a concern how the media portrays it to be.” He wants more focus on domestic funding which is only possible if both groups work together transparently. Day one has now come to a close.
Day two highlighted funding mechanisms. The stakeholders proposed a tiered system for small, medium and large farms with price caps on how much certifications will cost farmers based on the production and volume. Diego spearheaded the stakeholders group proposing 2 types of pricing systems to support voluntary labels: gold standard and black and white labels. The black and white labels are cage-free, hormone free, etc. meaning these claims are either in compliance or noncompliance. The gold standard labels are pasture raised and have more of a spectrum. A coalition including 3rd party certifiers, like FA, would support the creation of definitions for voluntary claims.
After listening to several discussions about how both groups want to support the consumer, I spoke with Joleah Jackson, role-playing for the National Consumers League, to see if the groups were truly looking out for the customer. It was clear that she was concerned the price of the certified voluntary labels would trickle down to the consumer eventually, but overall reiterated that sometimes you have to launch the process and then go back and troubleshoot.
Final remarks were underway from the working group addressing that FSIS is thrilled to partner with 3rd party certifiers so they can gain more knowledgeable inspectors. They also mentioned a small disclaimer label to notify the customer of any definition changes thereby reinforcing consumer trust through transparency.
Secretary of Agriculture Aamna gathered everyone around to announce her final decision. She accepted the working group’s suggestions surrounding definition changes and transparency to the consumer rather than creating a new label. She reiterated their solution would uphold her high standards of protecting the American people, especially the American farmer. The conclusion was made final to have universities and organizations, like WIC and SNAP, disseminate information to the public about the voluntary claims on meat and poultry packaging.
This blog is part of a series written by Arizona State University (ASU) graduate students who role-played as journalists in Model USDA 2026, a multi-day simulation hosted by the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at ASU.