“Organic” simply means drug- and chemical-free—organic animals can be subjected to all the same types of cruelty that occur in factory farms, and as long as they are not dosed with drugs or fed food that was treated with pesticides, their meat and milk can be labeled “organic.” However, because farmers are accustomed to dosing animals with drugs to make them grow larger and increase their profit margin, very few have been willing to go chemical and drug-free. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, less than 1 percent of animals raised for meat in the U.S. meets the criteria for the organic label. Among the farms that are chemical-free, some may continue to dose animals with drugs and then fraudulently label their animal products organic. When the European Union randomly sampled “hormone-free” cow flesh from the U.S., they found that 12 percent of the meat had been treated with powerful sex hormones that are banned in Europe.

Even if they are genuinely drug-free, animals on organic farms are often treated no better than their counterparts in factory farms. Farmers know that the more animals they raise in the least amount of space, the more profitable they will be. Many organic farms cram thousands of animals together in sheds or mud-filled lots, just as factory farms do. Steve Demos, former overseer of the Horizon Organic brand of milk, explains, “There’s a certain idealistic appreciation for a farm with 10 cows grazing on a hill at sunrise. But there are 280 million people in the Unites States. … Long ago they said that small was beautiful; they forgot to tell you it’s not profitable.

Animals on organic farms often suffer through the same mutilations that occur in factory farms. Cattle have their horns sawed off and their testicles cut out of their scrotums, and they’re held down and branded with sizzling-hot irons, resulting in third-degree burns. Pigs on organic farms may have their tails chopped off and chunks of their ears cut out—and some have rings put into their noses in order to permanently prevent them from rooting in the grass and dirt, which is one of pigs’ favorite pastimes. Chickens on organic egg farms usually have their beaks burnt off. None of these animals are given any painkillers.

The living conditions of animals on organic farms are often very similar to the conditions in factory farms. Chickens and pigs are often confined to large warehouses that reek of ammonia and rotting excrement. Many organic cows are sent to factory-farm feedlots to be fattened prior to slaughter, where they live in tiny enclosures caked with feces and mud—cows who are fattened on feedlots can still be labeled organic as long as they’re given organic feed. Cows on organic dairy farms may be kept in sheds or filthy enclosures, where they spend their lives mired in their own waste, enduring the strain of continuous pregnancies and the theft of their babies. According to an investigative report by Salon.com, some organic dairy companies, such as Horizon Organic, are really factory farms in disguise—the report states that the cows “at one of Horizon’s dairy farms in central Idaho … don’t look too happy. … [E]xperts say that a substantial percentage of cows at [organic] farms like Horizon’s are confined to pens.”

Farmers may not give medicine to animals who are suffering because the farmer can get a higher price for their meat and milk if the animals retain organic status. Studies have found that up to one-third of pigs on some organic farms are suffering from untreated infections, and reports also state that organic pigs often suffer from internal and external parasites, which could be passed on to the people who eat them. Organic chickens on some farms suffer from higher mortality rates than drugged chickens because extremely crowded and filthy housing conditions can lead to parasites and cannibalism. When the udders of cows on organic dairy farms become infected from frequent milkings, many farmers don’t give the cows medicine because then their milk would lose the organic label, which allows the product to be sold at a higher price.

Given these facts, it’s not surprising that the Advertising Standards Authority of the British government has ruled that it is deceptive to claim that animals raised on organic farms enjoy better lives than animals in conventional factory farms. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals testified before a British parliamentary committee, saying, “Organic farming is often perceived as being synonymous with high standards of farm animal welfare. However, this perception … appear[s] to be without foundation.” Similarly, a commission funded by the European Union concluded that “a growing body of evidence suggests that the animal health situation on organic farms is no better than that reported in conventional livestock production systems.”

A recent Gallup poll found that 96 percent of Americans believe that animals should be protected from cruelty, yet animals on today's farms receive no protection from even the worst abuses. As people become more aware of the horrors of factory farming, companies are responding by adding labels to their products with comforting words such as “organic,” “free-range,” “cage-free,” and “natural.” These labels may conjure up images of animals who roam freely in green pastures, but the reality of life and death for animals on organic and free-range farms is very different.

On organic and free-range farms, most animals are mutilated without the use of painkillers, kept in filthy, disease-ridden sheds, and finally forced to endure a long trip to the slaughterhouse without food or water. There are no humane slaughterhouses—in fact, free-range and organic animals are often sent to the same slaughterhouses that kill animals from factory farms.

Industries that exploit animals like to put out statements or design labels that are designed to trick consumers into believing that they treat animals well. Two of the most heavily marketed “animal welfare programs” are “Swine Welfare Assurance Program” (SWAP) and “United Egg Producers (UEP) Certified.” These labels are simply fancy names for factory farming—both were created by meat and egg lobbying groups, and both simply serve to put a happy face on the absolute worst practices in today's factory farms.

The UEP Certified label reads, “Produced in Compliance With United Egg Producers' Animal Husbandry Guidelines.” What the label doesn't say is that the "guidelines" mean next to nothing. The program allows factory farmers to cut off hens' sensitive beaks with a hot blade, cram six or seven hens into a tiny cage where they can't spread even one wing, and house them in filthy sheds with more than 100,000 other hens. UEP had been stamping its egg cartons “Animal Care Certified," but after Compassion Over Killing sued the industry for misleading consumers, the industry was forced to adopt the less deceptive “UEP Certified” label. However, the exact same horrific treatment of hens continues. Watch what happens on UEP-certified farms:

The SWAP label shows a gentle hand cradling a pig. In reality, SWAP allows all the worst abuses, including keeping mother pigs in filthy cement-and-metal crates so small that they can't even turn around and cutting piglets' ears, yanking out their testicles, and chopping off their tails—all without any painkillers. SWAP even allows farms to kill sick piglets by slamming their heads into the pavement. Most people would agree that the products from animals who are abused in these ways should not be labeled “care certified” or “welfare assurance,” but the meat and egg industries have adopted these phrases to con consumers and increase their profits.

Animal products with labels designed to make us feel good about eating animals are typically not much better for the animals themselves than the regular animal products are, but they are also nearly as harmful to our health. The only advantage that organic products have is that they are not laced with arsenic, antibiotics, or hormones. Although flesh from these animals might be safer than that from drugged animals, the best choice is to avoid all meat. Organic, natural, and free-range flesh, milk, and eggs are devoid of complex carbohydrates and fiber and are laden with artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol, just as all animal products are. Major studies linking the consumption of animal products to heart disease, cancer, and other leading killers suggest that it's these components of animal foods-animal fat, animal protein, and a lack of fiber-that cause disease. Organic and free-range animals are killed in the same filthy slaughterhouses as animals from factory farms, so their flesh is subject to the same bacterial contamination from unsanitary conditions as well.

A Word on Farmed Fish

The meat industry has also been promoting farm-raised fish as a sustainable alternative to wild-caught fish. What the industry doesn't want you to know is that farm-raised fish must be fed 5 pounds of wild-caught fish in order to produce just 1 pound of meat, making aquafarming worse—by a factor of five—than commercial fishing, which is destroying our aquatic eco-systems. Fish farms cause fish to suffer too—conditions on some aquafarms are so horrendous that as many as 40 percent of the fish die before farmers can kill and package them for food. Farmed-fish flesh contains contaminants such as mercury, dioxins, PCBs, and other toxins.

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