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"Some labels are highly meaningful, while others are misleading or even deceptive," says Urvashi Rangan, Ph.D., director of the Eco-Labeling Project for Consumers Union. What to do? Read with X-ray eyes: The best labels are transparent, hide nothing and have no conflict of interest. Here are some.

USDA Certified Organic

Foods carrying this label must be produced without antibiotics, hormones, genetic engineering, radiation or synthetic pesticides or fertilizers."It took a long time [10 years] to develop the USDA organic label, but it is highly meaningful for foods," Rangan says, explaining that the organic standards were developed with broad public support and that the label requires certification by independent, government-accredited organizations.

The USDA-certified organic cotton label is also highly meaningful, but personal-care products bear watching, due to ongoing but thus-far unsuccessful attempts by industry to dilute the organic standards.

Local and Regional Labels

Federal truth-in-advertising laws cover origin designations, and local/regional food labels are starting to contend with imports from abroad. Many farmers' markets impose strict local-origin requirements on vendors, and a number of stores, such as Wild Oats, often have local-food displays. The California Clean label is organized by small-scale, in-state farmers (www.californiaclean.com), and the Appalachian Harvest label (www.asdevelop.org, 276-623-1121) is overseen by Appalachian Sustainable Development in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. The Core Values Northeast label marks apples from New York and New England grown with integrated pest management (IPM) techniques, which minimize the use of synthetic pesticides. Managed by the IPM Institute of North America (www.corevalues.org, 608-232-1528).

Protected Harvest is a new label for IPM-grown foods. Healthy Grown Potatoes from Wisconsin currently bear this label (www.protectedharvest.org).

Bird Friendly: This coffee and chocolate label, overseen by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center (www.nationalzoo.si.edu/smbc, 202-673-4908) and verified by organic inspectors, ensures that growing techniques preserve ample shade cover and provide sufficient habitats for avifauna.

Certified Humane Raised and Handled: This relatively new program sets verifiable standards of treatment for livestock that go above and beyond current laws, including prohibiting growth hormones and non-therapeutic antibiotics, giving animals space to exercise in and requiring stricter environmental controls. Overseen by Humane Farm Animal Care (www.certifiedhumane.org, 703-435-3883).