甚特意自行繪製製作"Our pigs are never fed beta-agonists (like Ractopamine)
〔我們的豬從不餵食β-活化劑（如萊克多巴胺）〕向USDA(美國農業部)申請標章後已通過
August 14, 2015(2015年8月)
The Food and Drug Administration says that ractopamine is safe. The agency approved its use in pigs in 1999.
But the drug still arouses some controversy. Safety regulators in the European Union, China, Russia and a variety of other countries have not approved the drug. They say there's not yet enough evidence to prove that pork produced using ractopamine is safe to eat.
Apart from any human health concerns, there have been many reports of animals suffering when they get too much of the drug.
There are pigs that don't get any ractopamine. Organic pork producers definitely don't use it. Natural pork producers probably don't — although Maren says that there's so little awareness of ractopamine use that many big buyers of "all-natural" pork don't even bother to ask about it.
And consumers don't get any information about all that on pork labels. It's never mentioned.
David Maren decided that he wanted to tell the world that his company's pork is ractopamine-free. He thought consumers might pay a little extra for that, the same way that some consumers look for meat that's raised without antibiotics.
"Tendergrass Farms is always looking to get as much value for our products as possible," he says.
So last year, he drew up a new label containing these words: "Our pigs are never fed beta-agonists (like Ractopamine) — drugs widely used as artificial growth promotants in the pork industry today."
Meat labels have to get approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, though, which is supposed to make sure that labels are not false or misleading. The USDA refused to approve Maren's proposed label.
Officials at the USDA advised Maren to modify the label to say instead that "our animals are never fed growth promotants," and to include an additional statement that "federal regulations prohibit the use of hormones in pork."
Philip Derfler, deputy administrator of the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service, which oversees meat labels, told The Salt that Maren's original proposal was confusing. "Apparently, a judgment was made that the information wasn't being presented in a way that would be understandable to a consumer," he said.
But Maren kept pushing, and after hearing that the USDA was reconsidering its position, he submitted a new proposal. The new label states that the product is made with "no ractopamine — a beta-agonist growth promotant."
Last week, Maren got official notice that this label had been approved. Maren thinks it will be the first USDA-approved label on pork to explicitly mention ractopamine.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/08/14/432102733/a-muscle-drug-for-pigs-comes-out-of-the-shadows
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The New York Times
Sept. 4, 2015
紐約時報
Tendergrass Farms now can carry a label that says, among other things, “Made from organic pork raised on family farms with a vegetarian diet and no ractopamine (a beta-agonist growth promotant) or antibiotics — ever!”
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/05/business/new-type-of-drug-free-labels-for-meat-has-usda-blessing.html
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