Fair Trade Coffee. Certified Humane Raised and Handled Chicken. Organic everything.

Anyone not living under a rock in a remote, sandy location for the last five years has seen the prodigious rise to prominence of eco-labels at their local grocery store. You may not pay these little badges much attention, or if you do, you may be wondering what the heck they mean.

Read them or not, the badges of virtue on everything from cereal to chicken to laundry detergent are bound to get more prevalent, and represent an attempt by many companies to find a niche in an ever-expanding food and food products market. Join me for a stroll down the aisles as we try to decipher what these insistent insignias truly stand for.

Let’s start with an easy one (please note the sarcasm, as it is surely merited) after the jump:

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