What Stream B is
Stream B is the second surface FAT evaluates. Stream A scores retail labels — the regulated artifact you find on a package at the supermarket. Stream B scores directory listings — the self-authored profiles that local and regional producers publish on state agricultural directories (Minnesota Grown, Kentucky Proud, Georgia Grown), regional networks (Abundant Montana), and certifier rosters (A Greener World, Certified Humane, AGA), plus the producer-owned websites those directories link to.
The 15 FAT transparency categories don’t change. The scoring scale (Known / Partial / Missing) doesn’t change. What changes is the source material being scored. Stream B asks the same rubric of a different artifact.
Why both streams
A retail label is regulated, space-constrained, and mostly dictated by USDA or FDA labeling rules. A directory listing is a marketing artifact — typically a long-form profile where the producer chooses what to disclose.
That asymmetry inverts which categories are easy and which are hard:
- Stream A — retail labels are evidence-rich but narrative-poor. The label has to bear the establishment number; it can’t bear a paragraph about the farm’s pasture rotation.
- Stream B — directory listings are narrative-rich but evidence-poor. The producer has unlimited room to describe themselves, but the directory operator rarely enforces verification.
Both views are partial. The 15-category rubric is what makes the partiality measurable. Looking at both streams together is the only way to see the full picture of what consumers can and can’t know about meat and seafood production in the United States.
What Stream B reveals at a glance
Three buckets, the same scaffold the rest of the site uses:
1. Required basics — what the directory itself surfaces
Every directory listing names the producer, locates them in a state, and links a contact channel. That alone moves a producer from Level 0–1 traceability (where most retail labels sit) to Level 2 (farm-identified). Appearing in a state directory is a farm-level identification. This is Stream B’s structural advantage.
2. Verified programs — what a third-party seal proves
A producer who claims a Tier-A certification (USDA Organic, Animal Welfare Approved, Certified Humane, GAP step 4+, American Grassfed, Regenerative Organic Certified, Marine Stewardship Council, ASC) earns a Known score for the categories that program covers — but only after FAT cross-checks the claim against the certifier’s public roster. A claim alone is not enough. We verify it.
3. Unverified marketing — what the producer says about themselves
Soft-narrative categories (welfare practices, feed regimes, environmental claims, breed names, sales channels) get expansive treatment in directory listings. Without a Tier-A seal, those claims are scored Partial — recorded honestly, attributed to the producer, but not promoted to Known. The directory profile is a starting point, not an audit.
Honesty: the verification ceiling
This is the move that keeps Stream B from becoming a marketing reprint.
Every Stream B score carries a one-line annotation telling you who is asserting it:
- Producer-attested — the producer says so. The default for narrative claims.
- Directory-verified — the directory operator (often a state department of agriculture) checks the claim.
- Third-party-certified — a certifier with a public roster has verified and audited.
- Regulator-confirmed — a federal or state agency has on-record evidence (FSIS establishment record, USDA Organic INTEGRITY entry, FDA OASIS).
When you read a Stream B score, you read who’s behind it. That’s the difference between the producer says so and a third party verified it.
Where the dataset is
The first public Stream B deliverable is a 50–100-producer pilot transparency report, drawn from a small set of seeded directories (AGW, Abundant Montana, Minnesota Grown, Kentucky Proud, Georgia Grown). Once the pilot publishes, this page links forward to it.
Until then, the methodology is the public document — so anyone applying the rubric independently can do so.
The two streams together
Stream A continues to score retail labels in supermarkets via the FAT App and FAT’s own scoring program. Stream B scores directory listings of local and regional producers. Same rubric, different artifact, different verification ceiling. Both report Known / Partial / Missing across all 15 categories so a reader can compare apples to apples — even when one apple is a 1-square-inch label and the other is a thousand-word self-portrait.
Browse the 15 categories on a directory listing →
Browse the 15 categories on a retail label →
See the FAT scoring framework →
Sources
- FAT Two-Stream Methodology Framing, drafted 2026-05-06 (companion methodology memo).
- FAT Stream B Category Map — per-category disclosure expectations for directory listings, drafted 2026-05-06.
- 9 CFR Part 412 — USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service generic labeling regulations, including the 2024 “Product of USA” rule (effective Jan 1, 2026).
- USDA Agricultural Marketing Service — Organic INTEGRITY database, the public roster used to cross-check USDA Organic claims.
- A Greener World — Certified Farms public directory, the operator-published roster used to cross-check Animal Welfare Approved and Certified Grassfed claims.
Last reviewed: May 2026