More on Bred Free Range
We discussed the difference between free range and bred
free range in our last newsletter.
Since then, complaints have been lodged with the ACCC
about two producers that are advertising their pork as
free range when, in fact, their product could only be
classed as 'bred' free range and may well not even fit
into that catagory.
This is of major concern to the Association because, as
yet, there is no national standard for the production of
free range pork. FRPFA feels that it is necessary to set
the ground work now while the industry is still in its
infancy and ensure that standards for free range are set
high and remain that way.
The response to those complaints from the ACCC were
disappointing, not just because nothing is to be done to
stop what we believe is deceptive advertising, but that
they gave the impression that consumers were not savvy
enough to understand the difference between the two
methods of production.
Quote from ACCC:
"I appreciate that, in your view, a bred free range
producer's practices are different in certain aspects from
a free range producer's practices. However, that does not
necessarily mean that the average consumer would likely be
misled if a so-called bred free range producer described
themselves as a free range producer".
I am sure consumers that purchase a free range product
only to find that it is not all that it claims to be may
feel a more than a little misled. What do you think?
'Free range' tag on pork creates a real stink
'Free range' tag on pork creates a real stink
Julian Lee Marketing Reporter
September 18, 2007
A BITTER row over what defines a free range pig is
threatening to tear apart the potentially lucrative free
range pork industry.
Farmers have been thrown into turmoil after the
competition regulator ruled that there was little
difference between pigs that spent their entire lives
outdoors and those that were born free but were then
reared in intensively farmed conditions.
Consumers were unable to distinguish between the
production methods of "free range" and
"bred free range", so both were equally
legitimate, the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission ruled in its dismissal of a complaint.
Both sides of the fledgling free range pork industry
insist that its interpretation of free range is the more
accurate. There is no legal definition of free range pork.
Typically, bred free range pigs are born outdoors and
spend the first few weeks of their lives free to roam in
paddocks. At about three weeks old they are weaned and
transferred to huts with other pigs until they are
slaughtered at about five months.
Purists say pigs should spend their entire lives roaming
in paddocks to qualify for the free range tag.
The Free Range Pork Farmers Association had accused two
pig producers of misleading and deceptive conduct for
claiming to be free range. The competition regulator
acknowledged the different methods but said shoppers would
be unable to make the distinction.
"If a claim such as free range does nothing more than
confuse the average consumer as to its meaning, then the
claim is not misleading," the assistant director of
the regulator's Queensland branch, David Sutherland,
wrote.
One of the accused producers, Stephen Roberts of
Bundawarrah Free Range Pork said that until a strict
definition was reached, he was free to call his product
free range. The other, Gooralie Free Range Pork in
Goondiwindi, Queensland, uses both terms in its marketing.
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