Why is source important?
Knowing where your food comes from is the basis to knowing everything about what you eat. Where was it raised? Who handled it? Where did it go from there? All of these things are essential to understanding the food production process and traceability.
Meet some of the families behind your food.
Fast Facts
As farmers, the challenge is to provide consumers with the highest quality food possible. Growing and raising wholesome, safe food is the top goal. Farmers have done a good job; and they will continue to look for every opportunity to improve quality and safety.
The average cow produces enough milk each day to fill six one-gallon jugs, about 55 pounds of milk.
California produces almost all of the broccoli sold in the United States.
One-fourth of the world's beef and nearly one-fifth of the world's grain, milk and eggs are produced in the United States.
The United States and Brazil are the top beef producing countries in the world.
Who verifies source?
The key to successfully identifying the source of a product is the use of a third party auditing body. The food production system is diverse, and without a standardized way of assessing source, tracing a product from farm to fork is nearly impossible - and inaccurate. There are many accredited standards utilizing source verification as the basis of their auditing services.
They include: