FROM THE EDITOR

I’m old enough to remember when it was important to me to check a product label to see if the package could be recycled Later, I would check to see if the package came from recycled products

Over the years, I learned to check for many other things such as sugar content, artificial preser vatives or ingredients I can’t pronounce, whether the dietary fiber is higher than the total carbohydrates, how many calories and exactly how many portions do they really think the product contains, etc

In recent years, a lot of consumers like me have been reading labels on our meat products more than ever First, it was the fat ratio to know how lean the meat is Now, we ’ re looking to see whether the animal was fed on grass or grain, whether the chicken who laid the eggs lived free range, where the meat came from, etc

More recently, we ’ ve come to look on any label to see if the product was sustainably produced For food products, we want to know whether the product is organic, non-GMO and free of gluten or sugar or whatever else we don’t want in our foods And most recently, we ’ re looking for products from companies that use regenerative agriculture, producing products that don’t hurt the environment (or us) now, but also work toward reversing climate change

Studies show consumers are looking for grass-fed meat (Honestly, it still jolts me to see the words “grass-fed meat” because it’s the animal the meat came from that ate But anyway, you get my meaning and I’ve accepted it as an industry term )

As an omnivore, I have nothing against people who don’t eat meat for whatever reason I have a lot of friends who are vegan or vegetarian And I have no problem having meatless meals I just love a good steak or burger now and then I eat a lot more chicken and turkey than red meat like I used to

So when meat producers talk about producing products from “happy” animals, I can understand what they mean (stress can do bad things to any body) and I can understand how those opposed to eating meat think that it’s impossible to have a happy animal destined for slaughter

I was interested in talking to Matt Luxton from New Zealand’s Silver Fern Farms about the company ’ s use of time-honored farming methods (no antibiotics, grass-fed) and modern technology (satellite mapping, artificial intelligence) to produce beef, lamb and venison from animals raised on the island nation’s lush vegetation

I’m the first to admit I’m a kinda/sorta city gal My grandparents and great-grandparents farmed, but I was either not alive or too little to remember it Silver Fern Farms’ old and new farming methods fascinated me We present the interview on this month’s cover Speaking of food labels, we have news from the U S Department of Food and Agriculture on improving nutrition information The goal is to reduce the risk of chronic disease and encourage health equity with improved nutrition

We had plans to present a roundup of interesting products and people we encountered at Natural Products Expo West Time and space constraints made us push the story to the next issue Until then, take care and stay safe! GN

AJ Flick • Senior Editor aj f@oser.com

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