How To Read Food Labels, From Free-Range To Fair Trade

Summary

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Life Kit (NPR): How To Read Food Labels, From Free-Range To Fair Trade

Host: Dan Charles (NPR)
Date: March 10, 2020

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Episode Overview

This episode tackles the confusion behind the ever-growing jungle of food labels—like “organic,” “non-GMO,” “free-range,” and “fair trade”—that populate grocery shelves. Host Dan Charles is joined by experts Rebecca Thistlethwaite (Oregon State University, Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network), Matthew Dillon (agricultural expert at Clif Bar), and Kim Elena Ionescu (Specialty Coffee Association) to decode what these labels truly mean, which ones matter, and where shoppers should direct their energy (and wallet) if they care about health, animal welfare, or the environment.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Food Label Dilemma: Too Much, Too Vague

• Opening scene: Dan Charles describes a walk through a label-laden grocery store, echoing listener confusion over what terms like "organic", "all natural", and "non-GMO" actually mean.
• Expert quote: “I sometimes jokingly refer to it as the NASCAR-ing of our food. Instead of the brand logo, you see five, six, seven, eight different logos all with suggestions of meaning.” – Matthew Dillon [01:30]
• Main point: The landscape is so crowded and confusing, it's hard for shoppers to make meaningful choices.

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2. Takeaway #1: Is This Label Actually Trustworthy?

• Three key questions to ask of any label:
  1. Does it have specific, tangible value?
  2. Is it transparent and verifiable?
  3. Are its standards and rules enforced?
• Quote: “You want to look for labels you can trust.” – Dan Charles [06:05]
• Example: “Organic” is a label that fits these criteria; others are less robust.

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3. What Does “Organic” Actually Mean?

• Standards:
  • USDA Organic standards prohibit synthetic fertilizers, most pesticides/herbicides, and genetic engineering.
  • Requires natural pest control and crop rotation.
  • For animals: access to outdoors, organic feed (often imported, much pricier).
• Animal product nuance: Some animal welfare rules (especially for chickens) are loosely enforced at large-scale operations.
• Enforcement:
  “These practices and standards are actually backed and enforced by a law that actually has teeth, that actually requires people to follow the rules or face consequences...” – Matthew Dillon [09:14]
• Is it healthier?
  “It’s the wrong motivation… What’s important to me is how does it impact those farmworkers? What’s the downstream impact on the people drinking water?” – Matthew Dillon [10:03]
• Trade-offs: Organic farming uses less toxic chemicals but yields less and may use more land.

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4. “Non-GMO”: More Marketing Than Meaning

• Definition: “Non-GMO” means no genetically modified ingredients. Most U.S. GMOs are in corn, soy, sugar beets; labeling is verifiable but does NOT mean organic.
• Problem: Many foods labeled as non-GMO (like asparagus or mangoes) have no GMO versions, so the label is meaningless.
• Consumer confusion:
  “It creates a lot of confusion… people think non-GMO means less pesticide spraying, but that’s not what it means.” – Matthew Dillon [12:04]
• Bottom line:
  “It’s not changing the world. It’s not keeping toxins or chemicals out of our environment.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [12:39] “Should be called the ‘not much at all’ label.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [22:27]
• Advice: Don’t pay extra for non-GMO unless avoiding genetic engineering is specifically important to you.

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5. “Cage-Free”, “Free-Range”, “Pasture-Raised”: Cracking the Egg Labels

• Cage-free: Chickens not in individual cages but crowded inside barns.
  • “They're living on the floor of a barn…they're packed in pretty tightly.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [13:47]
• Free-range: Supposed to have outdoor access, but in practice, most never go out.
  • “You could have a large barn with 100,000 hens… and there might be 30 hens outside…” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [14:11]
• Pasture-raised: Chickens genuinely live outdoors, rotated across pasture.
  • “We moved our birds every single day… ours were actually on wheels.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [15:05]
• Price example: $8/dozen for true pasture-raised eggs (in 2010 California). [15:44]
• Why pay? Main reason is animal welfare.
  • “They're just getting to express their natural behaviors more. They're living a happier life.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [16:08]
• Enforcement: Look for third-party certification like Animal Welfare Approved or American Grassfed Association, especially for animal products.

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6. What About Seafood?

• Quick reference: Check Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch (website/app) for sustainable seafood ratings.

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7. “Fair Trade”: Good Intentions, Real Challenges

• What it does: Guarantees a minimum price (usually above market) to small-scale farmers in co-ops, and funds community projects.
• Quote: “The smallholder cooperative piece is really important, and it's really different than how a lot of other initiatives work.” – Kim Elena Ionescu [19:17]
• Expectation vs. reality:
  “Poverty is so much more complicated than just a price for coffee… you told me if I bought this product it would lift them out of poverty, and it didn’t happen.” – Kim Elena Ionescu [19:54]
• Summary: Fair trade helps but doesn’t solve systemic poverty.

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8. The Limits of Labels: Don’t Put the World on Your Receipt

• Expert take: Labels are relatively superficial solutions to systemic problems.
  • “Labels are like band-aids. They're just superficial, feel-good solutions…” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [20:55]
  • “Feeling this responsibility to change the world with our shopping decisions… I think they should first of all, understand that fixing the food system is not all on them. They shouldn’t feel guilt and shame.” – Matthew Dillon [21:16; 21:25]
• Main advice: Buying organic or fair trade is great, but lasting change comes through broader political and regulatory action, not just shopping choices.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The NASCAR-ing of our food…” – Matthew Dillon [01:30]
• “Should be called the ‘not much at all’ label.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [22:27]
• “Our shopping decisions won’t change the world. … fixing the food system is not all on them.” – Matthew Dillon [21:16; 21:25]
• $8/dozen for pasture-raised eggs in 2010 California (!!) [15:44]
• “Labels are like band-aids. They're just superficial, feel-good solutions to systemic problems.” – Rebecca Thistlethwaite [20:55]

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Important Timestamps & Segments

| Timestamp | Segment/Quote | |-----------|--------------| | 01:30 | “NASCAR-ing of our food.” (Matthew Dillon on label overload) | | 06:20 | What “organic” means and why it matters | | 10:03 | Why health isn’t the main point of organic; it’s about environment and workers | | 12:04 | Why “non-GMO” confuses consumers | | 13:47 | “Cage free” and what it does/doesn’t mean | | 14:11 | How “free-range” can be misleading | | 15:44 | The real cost of truly pasture-raised eggs | | 16:25 | Why third-party certifications matter for humane animal products | | 17:54 | “Fair Trade” label and its real impact (Kim Elena Ionescu) | | 20:55 | Labels as “band-aids” for systemic problems | | 21:25 | “Fixing the food system is not all on them.” (Matthew Dillon) | | 22:27 | “Not much at all label” for non-GMO (Rebecca Thistlethwaite) |

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Main Takeaways (from episode summary)

1. Check if the label is specific, transparent, and enforced.
2. “Organic” is the best-verified eco/ethical label, but isn’t about health for the eater so much as for workers & the environment.
3. “Non-GMO” just means no GMO ingredients, not less pesticide or higher welfare—it’s mostly marketing.
4. For animal products, seek independent third-party certifications (Animal Welfare Approved, American Grassfed).
5. For seafood, check Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch.
6. “Fair Trade” helps but can’t solve poverty on its own—poverty is complex.
7. Shopping ethically is valuable, but don’t feel weighed down—the big fixes come from policy, not only what’s in your cart.

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For more in-depth Life Kit advice, visit npr.org/LifeKit or find their newsletter.

Transcript

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[Dan Charles]

the grocery store, past the boxes of cereal, the cartons of milk and eggs, the. And you know, they're talking to us with labels that proclaim their virtues. Organic, pasture, raised, cage free, non gmo. I'm Dan Charles. I cover food and farming for npr. And I'm wondering, what should I make of all these labels? A lot of you apparently have been wondering the same thing.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

When it says organic, what does that really mean? When it says all natural, what does that mean?

[Podcast Host / Announcer]

What does it mean?

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

If it's non genetically modified, is that better than some? Is it worse? Organic? Like, are there different levels to it? It just seems like such a big, broad umbrella term.

[Dan Charles]

I want to know the answers because it does matter how food's grown. Farming is connected to all kinds of environmental problems. Pesticides, polluted rivers, disappearing habitat for wildlife. I don't want to make it worse. I wanna do right by the chickens and cows. I want food that's healthy, healthy. But these labels, all natural, sustainable, bird friendly. Experts agree it's a mess out there in the grocery store.

[Matthew Dillon]

I sometimes jokingly refer to it as the NASCAR ing of our food. That it's like, you know, you walk into a grocery store and instead of just seeing the brand logo, you see the brand logo and maybe 5, 6, 7, 8 different logos that have suggestions of meaning.

[Dan Charles]

Don't give up though. We have answers. This is your life kit for understanding food labels. Six things you need to know to translate the strange language that your food is speaking into plain facts. We'll tell you what the labels mean and which ones don't mean what you think they mean. Yes, those labels exist. So another label. So non gmo.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

You hear my sigh.

[Dan Charles]

And then depending on what matters to you and if you have the cash, you. You can decide if these labels are worth your money.

[Commercial Announcer]

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[Podcast Host / Announcer]

This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast Choiceology, hosted by Katie Milkman, an award winning behavioral scientist and author of the bestselling book how to Change. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Hear true stories from Nobel laureates, historians, authors, athletes and more about why people do the things they do. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] podcast or wherever you listen. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Made in Cookware President and co founder Jay Kalik shares why he was inspired by his family's fourth generation kitchen supply business.

[Dan Charles]

Growing up in a commercial kitchen at home really opened my eyes to bringing what was cool in restaurants into your home. And when you think about what we do today, we are asking these chefs for product ideas. We are designing products together with them that we then realize a home cook can use as well.

[Podcast Host / Announcer]

Learn more about Made in Cookware at M a d e I-n cookware.com this

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

week on the NPR Politics Podcast, another progressive Democrat edges out an establishment candidate Abdul El Sayed won Michigan's Senate primary, campaigning on affordability, healthcare and ending US Military aid to Israel. Join us as we break down his victory and what it could signal for November's midterms on the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get podcasts.

[Dan Charles]

We found some people who know firsthand what these labels mean. And by the way, we're not talking nutrition labels. We're talking ethical labels, eco labels. First, we talked to Rebecca Thistlethwaite.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

You can call me Rebecca.

[Dan Charles]

She manages a program at Oregon State University called the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network. Basically, she works with young farmers, especially ones raising cattle or chickens, helps them figure out how to make a living at it. Sometimes that involves getting a certification so they can get one of those special eco labels on their products. She's been a farmer herself. In fact, a couple of decades ago, there was a moment on a vegetable farm in Idaho that totally changed her life. It was freezing cold. They were digging carrots.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Up until that point in my life, I was probably 23, 22 at that point. I'd never nourished another human being. And having that kind of power to actually feed people and nourish them with high quality food, there was no looking back for me. I just thought that that was what I had to do for the rest of my life.

[Dan Charles]

Another expert we're talking to Matthew Dillon. He grew up on a farm in Nebraska.

[Matthew Dillon]

We raised cattle and I sold sweet corn and tomatoes door to door as a kid.

[Dan Charles]

Now he works for the company Clif Bar. He's the company's agricultural expert still in Nebraska.

[Matthew Dillon]

I'm running the Omaha headquarters here.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Whoa.

[Dan Charles]

Impressive.

[Matthew Dillon]

Well, it's a headquarters of one me.

[Dan Charles]

By the way, his first experience with organic carrots back in high school was not so inspiring.

[Matthew Dillon]

I thought, why are people paying for these hairy of scabby looking carrots? Like these are nowhere near the quality of the produce that we grow on our little conventional farm. Because this is back in 1981, and I think organic back in the early days had a real quality problem.

[Dan Charles]

He took a fresh look at organic farming years later and changed his mind. For one thing, organic food's gotten better. But there's another reason, and it's connected to the very first thing you need to know about food labels. Our first takeaway. You want to look for labels you can trust.

[Matthew Dillon]

When you're looking at labels, there's three things to ask. Is there really a clearly defined tangible value? Something specific? Is the label and the verification transparent? Can they get information behind the label? And then are the standards and rules actually enforced?

[Dan Charles]

Matthew says one label that meets those requirements is organic. By the way, we want to say up front, we know there's a price tag for organic. There is for a lot of labels that we're talking about in this episode. Maybe those things don't fit your budget. That's fine. We're not telling you what food you should buy. We're here to help you understand what you'd be paying for. So I've got an organic tomato here. What makes it organic?

[Matthew Dillon]

So what makes a food organic is that the farmers, the processors, the manufacturers all comply with U.S. department of Agriculture organic standards.

[Dan Charles]

It is a massive set of rules.

[Matthew Dillon]

Doesn't allow synthetic fertilizer, doesn't allow the vast majority of pesticides and herbicides. Doesn't allow genetic engineering.

[Dan Charles]

So organic farmers use composted animal manure as fertilizer instead of nitrogen from a factory. They rotate their crops more often. They try to control insect pests and harmful fungi with natural predators or with chemicals that exist in nature like copper.

[Matthew Dillon]

There's a couple of dozen different inputs that organic producers use that certainly have varying degrees of toxicity. But even something like copper sulfate, you know, I'll take that over a conventional fungicide.

[Dan Charles]

All those rules mean that organic farming generally takes more work, and an organic field typically produces a little less food. You know, are there any foods that basically nobody even tries to Grow organically.

[Matthew Dillon]

I'll tell you our biggest challenge, and that is without a doubt, macadamia nuts.

[Dan Charles]

An infestation of stink bugs hit the macadamia nuts of Hawaii. Growers decided they couldn't stay organic. They had to rule out the pesticides to save their crops. And for animals on organic farms, there are more rules. Cows have to be able to go outside and graze. Chickens and pigs are supposed to be able to go outside too. Although honestly that rule right now is pretty loose. Chickens on some of the biggest organic egg farms really don't get to go outside much. The thing that really drives up the price of organic eggs and milk and meat, though, is the feed that they eat. Here's Rebecca Thistlethwaite.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

All of those animals, they spent their entire lifetime eating only certified organic foods. So whether that be grains or hay or pasture. So everything they consumed, and then in the case of the four legged species, their mothers, when they were gestating, actually had to be fed organically as well.

[Dan Charles]

This organic feed can be twice as expensive as regular feed. A lot of it's even imported from China and Latin America. But Matthew Dillon says the point is you can be pretty sure that organic farmers followed all these rules.

[Matthew Dillon]

These practices and standards are actually backed and enforced by a law that actually has teeth, that actually requires people to follow the rules or face consequences that can be both fiscal and even can include jail time.

[Dan Charles]

So second takeaway, the organic label has a clear meaning and the rules are enforced. There have been some cases of counterfeit organic food, but the USDA is trying to crack down on them. As for whether those rules actually make a difference in the world, there are some environmental benefits to organic food. Farming this way means fewer toxic and polluting chemicals. It's safer for farm workers. But there are some trade offs in organic production. It takes more land to produce the same amount of food. Now, is the food actually better for you?

[Matthew Dillon]

I think it's the wrong motivation in purchasing organic food. And I think it's one of the things the organic community has done a bad job of is that they have sold the proposition of eat this because it's healthier for you and your family to avoid these pesticides. And while there may be some data that shows that there's some benefit, that's not really as important to me. What's important to me is how does it impact those farmworkers? How does it impact rural communities? What's the downstream impact on the people drinking water downstream from high intensive agricultural production?

[Dan Charles]

Matthew says that's where the real Impact is. And for him that's important enough. So another label. So non gmo, I'm going to say

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

offhand, that is probably my least favorite label.

[Dan Charles]

Quick explanation. GMO means genetically modified organism. A handful of very widely grown crops like corn, soybeans and sugar beets have been genetically modified. New genes have been inserted in the laboratory. Most of these new genes make the crops easier to grow. The modified crops can tolerate herbicides at farmers use. The government's always said they're perfectly safe, but they're still controversial. Some consumers say we just don't trust the companies behind those GMOs. So non GMO means this food is not made from those genetically modified crops. There's a whole system set up to verify those claims. But Rebecca and Matthew say the label's being used in misleading ways. It drives them crazy when they see it on things like mangoes and asparagus and cashews.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

There is no genetically engineered version of these crops. And yet food manufacturers are still putting that label on it. And they're doing it to differentiate themselves, even though their product is exactly the same as everything else on the shelf. It's primarily a market driven label that big industry really loves.

[Dan Charles]

Food companies love the label apparently because a lot of consumers think non GMO means less pesticide spraying, a little bit like organic, but that's not what it means.

[Matthew Dillon]

So it creates a lot of confusion. Because if I'm a consumer and I walk into a natural food store and I see non GMO strawberries that are five bucks for a clamshell and the organic ones are $7.50 and I've got to watch my pocketbook. I'm going to buy those non GMO ones because I think that means they weren't sprayed with X, Y and Z, because that's what the marketing machine has said.

[Dan Charles]

So you're saying basically non GMO is conventional agriculture?

[Matthew Dillon]

It is. I mean, I grew up on a non GMO farm and we sprayed all kinds of, you know, we used atrazine, for example.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

It's not changing the world. It's not keeping toxins or chemicals out of our environment because non GMO crops are still grown with synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers and growth hormones and et cetera.

[Dan Charles]

So you would not advise anybody to pay extra for non gmo?

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

No, I would not.

[Dan Charles]

This is takeaway number four. You can look for the non GMO label if you just care about avoiding genetically engineered ingredients, but you're not doing much for the environment or for anybody's health now let's steer our grocery cart down the milk and egg aisle in the store. Boy, is it full of confusing labels, especially the eggs. Don't worry, we're not going to talk about every single label out there.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

One I saw on an egg carton recently was hand gathered, which most eggs are. Hand gathered. Yes.

[Dan Charles]

So, yeah, fortunately, we have Rebecca here

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

to help, I should say. I used to raise 5,000 laying hens on pasture and it was also certified organic. So I know quite a bit about this.

[Dan Charles]

So let's start with cage free. What does it mean?

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Cage free just means the chickens are not in individual cages, but they are typically inside a barn. So they're living on the floor of a barn. There may be some perches in there, but they're. They're packed in pretty tightly.

[Dan Charles]

You should not think of hens running around the countryside.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

No, not at all. Despite the, the packaging, they are not outside free range.

[Dan Charles]

I see that sometimes.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Okay, so free range, according to the usda, they are supposed to have some outdoor access, but you could have a large barn with 100,000 hens in it and just have a couple little doors and, you know, you go visit that kind of farm and there might be 30 hens outside that figured out how to climb out those doors and climb over all the other hens to get out there. So it's just, you know, a shade away from cage free.

[Dan Charles]

So basically it sounds like free range is pretty misleading.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

I believe so, yeah.

[Dan Charles]

And then there's pasture raised, what Rebecca used to do. That is a whole different deal.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Now if they're actually on pasture and they have access to pasture, that typically means that you're having to rotate your birds around pasture because if you just leave them in one spot, they'll turn it to dirt.

[Dan Charles]

This sounds really hard, actually, what you're describing. Was it hard for you?

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Oh, we moved our birds every single day. There's different styles of henhouses, but ours were actually on wheels. There was perches inside of them and then there were ramps that they could go up and down. And we just hooked the trailer up to the back of our pickup truck and drove them to a new spot and then set up the electric fence around them so that predators couldn't get to them. Yeah.

[Dan Charles]

I hope you got a lot of money for your eggs.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Well, yes, they were probably the most expensive eggs in California. And I think some of your listeners would, would keel over if they heard the price that we were charging.

[Dan Charles]

Will you tell us how much was it?

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Well, and this was, you know, we, we Sold our business in 2010. So this is several years back. We were charging $8 a dozen.

[Dan Charles]

You may be asking right now, why would anybody buy such high priced eggs? There's some evidence you'll get some extra vitamins from pasture raised eggs because the chickens themselves are foraging, finding good things to eat. But the main reason, Rebecca says, is that the chickens are getting treated better.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

They're just, you know, they're sort of getting to express their natural behaviors more. So they're living a happier life, I would say.

[Dan Charles]

Now, if you want to support this, beware of egg producers who are trying to get those high prices without actually doing the work. Look for the stamp of an organization that checks up on the farmers.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

It probably would be wise to look for that third party certification. I think probably the most rigorous standards out there for that are animal welfare approved.

[Dan Charles]

This is actually the thing to remember when it comes to labels for a lot of animal products. There's eggs, but also beef or pork or milk. You see plenty of labels that promise better treatment of the animals. In beef, a big one is grass fed, which means the animals never were confined in a feedlot. There's a certification for that.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

American Grass Fed association does a great job with that. So those two labels I think are probably the best for animal products. Animal welfare approved and American Grass Fed

[Dan Charles]

association in big chain supermarkets, though you may not find those labels. In that case, Rebecca says she'd go with organic. The organic animal welfare standards aren't perfect, but at least they're enforced. Before we go on, just a few words about seafood. If you want to know which fish are endangered and which ones you can eat with a clear conscience, we have just one tip for you. Check Seafood Watch, which is run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They have a website, also an app. They take each kind of fish and give it one of three grades. Best choice, good alternative, or avoid one last label to talk about. It's very different from the others. Fair trade. You see it mostly on coffee or chocolate, sometimes on bananas. These are products that come from places where a lot of people are very proud. We called up another expert, Kim Elena Ionescu.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I am the chief sustainability officer for the Specialty Coffee Association.

[Dan Charles]

Kim's been a fair trade advocate since college.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I'd gone to fair trade demonstrations on the college campus despite the fact that I didn't drink coffee and I didn't really know what fair trade meant.

[Dan Charles]

But then she got into coffee totally by accident.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I wanted to be a publishing agent or something, and I thought that a good start would be to work at a bookstore. And a bookstore didn't hire me. And I walked next door, and there was a coffee shop that had just opened. And I talked to the barista, and she gave me a job.

[Dan Charles]

She started drinking coffee. First mocha. Now she takes it black, no sugar. For a while, she was the coffee buyer for counterculture Coffee in Durham, N.C. traveled the world visiting coffee farms, Some that were fair trade certified and some that weren't. What you thought fair trade meant. Did it turn out that fair trade actually meant that?

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I don't remember in college what I thought that it meant. I just. I thought it meant better and better for people. And I think that in that sense, in many ways, it did turn out to be true.

[Dan Charles]

You see, fair trade does a couple of different things. It guarantees a minimum price to coffee producers, and most of the time, that's more than the market price. Right now it's 30% more. But there's another part that's just as important. Kim says, for the most part, fair trade products are coming from small farmers who are organized into cooperatives.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

The smallholder cooperative piece is really important, and it's really different than how a lot of other initiatives work.

[Dan Charles]

Some of the extra money, that premium above the market price goes to the cooperative, and members vote on how to spend it. It strengthens this community institution and actually gives people a little more power.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I think those are the two main points, is that you're strengthening smallholder farmer cooperatives, and there's a minimum price guaranteed, regardless of the volatility in the market.

[Dan Charles]

And chances are you're making somebody's life better.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I hope so.

[Podcast Host / Announcer]

Ha.

[Dan Charles]

You don't sound so super convinced.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

Well, that's where I feel like the marketing piece gets tricky when we overreach in order to feel good. When we say that fair trade lifts people out of poverty. And then it turns out that after 10 years of participating in a fair trade cooperative, family's still poor. Then the buyer of their coffee might feel like, wait a second. You told me that if I bought this product, it would lift them out of poverty. And it didn't happen. Poverty is so much more complicated than just a price for coffee. I mean, it's possible that that producer has a very small amount of land, and there's no price high enough to make that tiny plot of land a viable economic support system for the family.

[Dan Charles]

So you feel like sometimes the labels kind of over promise.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

I think that they. They certainly did. You know, when people distrust certifications, I think it's partly because they feel like they thought it was going to do more.

[Dan Charles]

In fact, we heard something similar from all of our experts, like Rebecca Thistlethwaite.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Labels are they're like band aids. They're just superficial kind of feel good solutions to systemic problems.

[Dan Charles]

And this was practically the first thing that Matthew Dillon told us.

[Matthew Dillon]

Labels frustrate me, you know, feeling this responsibility to change the world with our shopping decisions.

[Dan Charles]

Our shopping decisions won't change the world, he says, which may seem like a downer, but Matthew says really, people walking around the grocery store should feel relieved.

[Matthew Dillon]

I think they should first of all, understand that fixing the food system, improving the food system is not all on them, that they shouldn't feel guilt and shame about the purchases they make.

[Dan Charles]

Focus on political decisions instead, like environmental regulations. And that is our final takeaway, folks. If you want to protect the planet's soil and water and get rid of poverty, sure, buy that organic tomato, but don't leave it at that. Okay, We've covered a lot of ground here. Let's recap. Takeaway number one, when you're looking at

[Matthew Dillon]

labels, there's three things to ask.

[Dan Charles]

Does this label mean something specific? Can you find out exactly what it means and how it works? And is it enforced? Takeaway number two, one label that does fit the bill is organic.

[Matthew Dillon]

These practices and standards are actually backed and enforced by a law that actually has teeth.

[Dan Charles]

Takeaway number three, non GMO simply means it doesn't contain genetically modified ingredients, nothing else. It's not organic.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Should be called the not much at all label.

[Dan Charles]

Takeaway number four, if you want to make sure your eggs or meat are coming from animals that are really treated well, look for independent certifications.

[Rebecca Thistlethwaite]

Those two labels, I think, are probably the best for animal products, Animal Welfare Approved and American Grass Fed Association.

[Dan Charles]

For seafood, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch. Takeaway number five, Fair Trade delivers some extra money to small farmers and strengthens cooperatives. And finally, putting your money where your heart is is great. But don't feel like it's up to you and your food purchases to solve every problem in the world. For more NPR Life Kit, check out our other episodes. There's one about how to pay off debt and another one about how to go back to college. You can find [e-mail] LifeKit and if you love LifeKit and want more, subscribe to our newsletter. Here, as always, is a completely random tip. This one from LifeKit listener Samantha Manus.

[Kim Elena Ionescu]

Okay, here's my cure for the hiccups. Get a full glass of water and then put a paper towel over the entire top of the water glass and then you drink the entire glass through the paper towel in one go. You might spill a little bit, but you gotta drink the whole thing for it to work.

[Dan Charles]

If you've got a good tip, leave us a voicemail at 202-216-9823 or email [e-mail] this episode was produced by Sylvie Douglas. Megan Keane is the Managing producer, Beth Donovan is the Senior editor. Our Digital editor is Beck Harlan, and our Project coordinator is Claire Schneider. Special thanks thanks to Jen Altschul. I'm Dan Charles. Thanks for listening.

[Podcast Host / Announcer]

This message comes from Charles Schwab with their original podcast, Choiceology. Choiceology is a show about the psychology and economics behind people's decisions. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] podcast.