Walking into a grocery store can be an intimidating task to complete these days. With products depicting open pastures and green graphics and labels proclaiming "organic" or "sustainable" ingredients and practices it can be difficult for someone to know what is really sustainable. How can an average person even know if a label is telling the truth or not?
It is not the easiest task to play detective and search for the brand of milk or snack bars that are the most sustainable. Today people are barely finding enough time to cook their own meals let alone research the facts behind the brands they are buying. But if people who are truly interested in finding the products that are local, fresh, organic or any certain kind of sustainable product they can find the answers with just a tiny bit of Googling and interpreting what they find.
It is not the easiest task to play detective and search for the brand of milk or snack bars that are the most sustainable. Today people are barely finding enough time to cook their own meals let alone research the facts behind the brands they are buying. But if people who are truly interested in finding the products that are local, fresh, organic or any certain kind of sustainable product they can find the answers with just a tiny bit of Googling and interpreting what they find.
I took the challenge to look up two brands that I use often to see if their mission statements hold up to what their labels appear to represent and what I found, well it surprised me by how easy it was to uncover the truth in this case. Now dairy products, some of the most sold products at a grocery store, ranging from milk and butter to yogurt and ice cream, can be an easy sell of false labels. Images of cows grazing in fields on green colored packaging practically sells itself with ideas of sustainable and fresh products, but is it always the truth?
The first dairy company I researched was Lucerne. The company website seems promising at first with pictures of green plants and fresh blueberries all trying to indicate pure and fresh products is quickly questioned when moving onto the next page when trying to find the facilities. With all USA based facilities I looked up the nearest location and what I found was a Safeway milk plant in the industrial area of San Leandro, Ca. This area does not look like it supports the livelihood of dairy cows in a pasture. Another quick find that contradicted the label of the company's "pure, fresh, and wholesome" products is the very little description that the website offers to the consumer of their mission. Digging for hours did not bring up enough information for me to even find the location of a farm they use. So how can I trust that Lucerne even uses fresh, pure milk from cows that I hope are being treated as the cows on the packaging.
The second company I researched was Straus. This company is a local California company based in Marshall, Ca in Northern California. Upon looking at the company's website I easily had any information of the history, practices, products and facilities available to me. Looking deeper into where the milk comes from you can find the address of the companies original farm along with the names and profiles of all contributing farmers' history and owners. Any information wanted can be found on the website of the Straus Family Creamery without a hassle.
Looking up this information does not take as long as many believe it might and sure it might have been a small hassle but the results were very rewarding. Now I know which company I trust and what products I will buy in store when I am looking for sustainable, organic, and local dairy products. And this can be done for any grocery product; all it takes is a few minutes and a search engine. If commitment to companies that follow your values is important to you there will be no hesitation in wanting to research the products you use at home. Becoming more informed about your groceries is one step in the right direction to making a greener and more sustainably conscience community.
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