Ensuring the Standards of French Food

[Felice]

Lately, after reading the book « The Omnivore 's Dilema » which is a very in depth look into how food is produced in the US, I have been wondering about how to find similar information in France. How do I know that the produce I buy from the local farmer in my market isn't laced with pesticides? I really prefer buying vegetables from a local producer, but would love to know about the means of production.

For beef and chicken, I always buy label Rouge and go to a quality butcher, but is this a guarantee?

This week's Fooding (http://lefooding.com/actualite-210.htm asks

Après Jonathan Nossiter et le vin, Périco Légasse et le fromage, y a-t-il, un, une, des volontaires pour s'encrotter les bottes et aller jeter un oeil derrière le poulailler ? Régal, Saveurs, Elle à table...pourraient-ils nous expliquer comment être sûrs de ne pas cuisiner un red curry avec du poulet dont le bec aurait été arraché à la machine ?

Or

"After Jonathan Nossiter and wine, Périco Légasse and cheese, is there someone willing to get their boots dirty and go take an up-close look at a hen house? Régal, Saveurs, Elle à Table... can you tell us how to be sure how not to cook a red curried chicken whose beak was not ripped off by a machine?"

I really hope that someone takes them up on this, as I think people need to be more aware of industrial farming and its implications.

[John Talbott]

Felice, I think you've hit on something.

I remember how pleased I was when I came to France for the first time to find produce labelled by origin both in France and outside, but you're correct, how is/was it grown, harvested, etc?

When visiting in New Zealand and was horrified to see my son-in-law take off his astronaut-like uniform after spraying his apples and just hoped the family was always upwind.

I hope too that our discussion will not spin into stereotypes and cross-cultural misunderstandings; we all know how hard the French work to track the origin of say, beef and ensure its safety.

[Felice]

I hope too that our discussion will not spin into stereotypes and cross-cultural misunderstandings; we all know how hard the French work to track the origin of say, beef and ensure its safety.

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Believe me, I am confident that the state of things is probably far better in France than in the US, as they actually have protections set up like AOC and Label Rouge.

I just did a very quick search on Google for 'label rouge' and came across this on the Ashley farms website

"The Label Rouge requirements are much more stringent than any program in America, including "All-Natural", "Free Range", "Certified Organic", "Certified Free Farmed" and "Certified Humanely Raised".

And from the same site, in English, the requirements for label rouge chickens.

http://ashleyfarms.com/label-rouge-requirements.php

And you are right, almost every product sold in France lists its origins as far as I have seen, so I know if I am getting apples from Normandy or New Zealand.