Food

I’m not an expert (or anywhere near), but I come across information here and there that I find pretty disturbing about how food is marketed and what things mean (especially for “premium” items, like “organic” or “free range” — companies have found ways to get the laws for such terms turned mostly into bullshit).
My personal breakdown of how I choose food goes something like this: I’m mostly vegetarian but eat some free-range meat. At home I try to only get organic animal products, where effort has gone into treating the animals with care (cage free eggs, milk from cows that are treated reasonably well). Since “free-range”, “cage-free”, etc don’t mean the same thing to me that they mean legally, I try to do some basic due diligence in deciding what companies to stick with and ones to avoid like the plague. My rationalization has to do both with caring about how animals are treated, and also worrying about bioaccumulation of pesticides, hormones & analogs, etc. I’m not as careful when it comes to plantstuffs (especially things with rhinds) though I prefer organic if there’s not a huge cost difference.

Unfortunately the field is somewhat dynamic, and it’s not uncommon for a company that has done well by their animals to change… so it’s necessary to research companies periodically.

Milk

I don’t drink a lot of milk, but my coffee does need cream.
I’m avoiding Horizon Organics (owned by Dean Foods; I’d rather buy non-organic milk than pay them a premium for “organic” milk) and iffy on Organic Valley. Many store brands also have issues, coming from Aurora.

Monsanto and rBST

I usually get cream, etc. from Natural by Nature, though I haven’t found much in the way of either positive or negative reviews that weren’t somehow attached to the company.

Yogurt

Again, I avoid Horizon… I largely buy Seven Stars, though it’s really not the best tasting yogurt I’ve had.

Soy/Oat/Almond Milk

Sadly one of the biggest soy milk brands, Silk, is owned by Dean Foods (mentioned above). I tend to get oat or almond milk from Pacific Organic. As far as I can tell they’re pretty alright.
There are also potentially issues with soy (link from Ruthie Doyle)

Lamb

Most of the good lamb I’ve come across, at Whole Foods and Fairways, is from New Zealand. My understanding is that the meat industry there just isn’t as f#(ked up as ours is, and the animals are generally well treated. I’m open to better information though.

Beef

I’ve generally been a fan of Niman Ranch. However according to Wikipedia, “In August 2007 Bill Niman left the Niman Ranchafter a period of increasing confrontation with a new management team over money and animal protocols.” I’d like to get some more information on specifics, and exactly how protocols have changed.

Chicken

Here in NYC I generally get Murray’s (which is sold at Fairway Market. Murrays apparently now has a farm locator where you can type in a # from the label and it will tell you what farm the chicken grew up on… not sure how much value that adds, but it’s kinda cool to know that you can get that level of information.

Eggs

Right now in my fridge I have Rothkopf Brand Natural Eggs. Unfortunately I can’t find any good information on them (especially whether they debeak their chickens).
On wording (note the mention that Trader Joe’s still debeaks their egg laying chickens… so they’re off my “ok” list). More information from Wikipedia
Another Link from Ruthie

Organic Company Ownership

this chart is also worth looking at in making decisions… I don’t play the “just because it’s owned by a big company it’s evil” game, but in some cases the parent companies have some major ethical issues that I refuse to support.