{"id":1526,"date":"2021-10-06T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-06T12:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmforward1.wpengine.com\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2025-10-28T18:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T22:37:15","slug":"giant-eagle-drops-one-health-certified-label-amidst-humanewashing-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/news\/giant-eagle-drops-one-health-certified-label-amidst-humanewashing-backlash\/","title":{"rendered":"Giant Eagle Drops \u201cOne Health Certified\u201d Label Amidst Humanewashing Backlash\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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Grocery chain Giant Eagle has revealed its plans to phase out all \u201cOne Health Certified\u201d (OHC) chicken from its stores. This major win for conscientious consumers comes after dialogue with Farm Forward over the deceptive nature of the OHC label. The label is the creation of the nation\u2019s fourth largest poultry producer, Mountaire Farms, which has recently come under attack for its egregious workers\u2019 rights, environmental, and animal welfare record. OHC is a case study in humanewashing, healthwashing, and greenwashing.<\/p>\n

OHC has also been denounced by a coalition of over 50 groups, including Farm Forward, who represent the public health, consumer protection, and animal welfare sectors. In a statement Farm Forward sent to Giant Eagle, the coalition\u00a0stated<\/a>:<\/p>\n

[T]he OHC standards package conventional practices in consumer-researched language that resonates well with shoppers but delivers little. Plans announced in January 2020 to expand from the OHC chicken and turkey standards to other animal products, including beef, dairy, pork, and eggs, makes it all the more urgent to address these concerns. The inadequacies of these standards must be exposed before any more consumers are misled into thinking that the OHC label represents anything more than business as usual.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mountaire underhandedly released the OHC label to capitalize on growing consumer concern about factory farming\u2019s role in public health, pandemics, animal welfare, and environmental health. Mountaire\u2019s so-called \u201ccertification\u201d appropriates terminology from the legitimate One Health framework, which is a wide-ranging environmental and public health effort forwarded by institutions like the CDC and WHO. Regardless of what the holistic-looking label implies, OHC simply codifies standard factory farming practices\u2014like the use of\u00a0genetically modified<\/a>, rapidly growing birds.\u00a0OHC was designed to trick consumers into thinking they are buying a better \u201cOne Health\u201d animal product, when in reality, they are buying the same factory farmed products with a new label.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a webinar, Mountaire Farms confessed their plan with the OHC label is to \u201creduce consumer concerns.\u201d1<\/a> However, consumers should be concerned about Mountaire\u2019s intentions in light of its recent\u00a0$205 million settlement<\/a>\u00a0for contaminating Delaware\u2019s potable water, in addition to its\u00a0questionable labor practices<\/a>, specifically its treatment of its workers.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, OHC is just one among many of the humanewashing gimmicks pushed by food giants like Mountaire. These marketing ploys assuage consumers\u2019 concern for animals\u2019 well-being, while concealing the use of controversial animal farming practices, like lifelong confinement. According to Ben Goldsmith, Chief Strategist at Farm Forward, \u201cFrom \u2018humane\u2019 and \u2018all natural\u2019 labels to certifications that appear legitimate, humanewashing makes it nearly impossible for consumers to shop in accordance with their values.\u201d<\/p>\n

In September 2021, Giant Eagle\u2019s Director of Corporate Communications Don Donovan told Farm Forward, \u201cPlease know that at Giant Eagle we take seriously our responsibility to ensure the welfare and proper handling of all animals that are used in the production of items sold in our stores \u2026 As part of our next product label update, we do have plans to discontinue the inclusion of the One Health Certified label . . . We expect this shift to happen over the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giant Eagle\u2019s move to discontinue OHC comes after Farm Forward\u2019s\u00a0petition<\/a>\u00a0pressuring ALDI to abandon the OHC label hit 70,000 signatures. The decision illustrates that Giant Eagle is taking meaningful steps towards transparency. Now it is time for other grocery chains that claim to cater to conscientious consumers, like ALDI and Whole Foods Market, to follow Giant Eagle\u2019s lead in addressing the rampant humanewashing on their shelves.<\/p>\n

Humanewashing prevents consumers from making choices at the grocery store that align with their values. Help stop this deception by signing\u00a0our petition to ALDI<\/a>, urging the chain to drop the deceptive OHC label. Before your next trip to your local grocery store, read our\u00a0food choices guide<\/a>\u00a0to get the full scoop on the labels, and when in doubt, consider defaulting to a\u00a0plant-rich diet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n\n\n\t

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October 6, 2021<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,13,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanewashing","category-animal-product-labeling","category-animal-welfare"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmforward.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}