From personal care to produce to poultry, we’re seeing more and more labels claiming to be clean and green and healthy. But just because a label sounds good for you, the environment or the other beings involved in its production (be they animal, vegetable, or human) doesn’t mean it is. Here’s an attempt to look beyond the greenwash and crack the codes.

NATURAL: Sounds good, right? In pretty much all realms, from shampoo to that carton of eggs, natural doesn’t mean that much. Just look at the new Pepsi drink. Yes, it shuns high fructose corn syrup, which is positive, but just because ingredients aren’t made from petroleum doesn’t always make them what we’d expect from the natural nomenclature, especially once subjected to all that processing. (See the Pepsi natural ingredient list here.) So while natural may mean a food or lotion is less processed or free from preservatives, it doesn’t tell you much of the backstory you really want to know.

ORGANIC:  This is where it’s at. Anything with the USDA organic label means it’s made from 95 to 100% organic ingredients—if not, the falsifier is slapped with an $11,000 fine. In the case of food, that means it contains no synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, growth hormones, antibiotics or the like—see the full organic food definition here. (Keep in mind that when shopping at your farmers’ market, small growers can’t necessarily afford the official seal, but buying local from farmers who don’t use pesticides is still your best bet, label or no label.) For personal care, if it bears the organic seal, it’s the real deal. If it just says the word organic, you take your chances as the FDA doesn’t regulate that particular descriptor. If you want to get in on the action of keeping the organic label pure (e.g. free of GMOs), sign up with the Organic Consumers Association.

It’ll help you find legit organic products of all stripes as well.

FAIR TRADE:  If you buy chocolate, coffee or shea butter soap that’s Fair Trade Certified, it guarantees the farmers who grew the raw materials are paid fairly, treated justly and given opportunity and investment. Fair Trade orgs attempt to make trade fair for everybody by valuing the workers (eschewing poor conditions, poor pay and poor practices like child labor) and making farming good all around, for the farmer and the dell. (Finally, here’s why Fair Trade certified is a better choice than Rainforest Alliance.)

MARINE STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL: Fish with the MSC label are from fisheries adhering to standards that protect wild fish populations and the water in which they swim. It’ll help you find shops selling sustainable fish who are doing their part to prevent The End of the Line. And of course, since many restaurants and sushi bars don’t label their dishes or fishes, carry the Seafood Watch pocket guide or get the best ocean picks fresh on your iphone .

Since meat and poultry labels can get pretty complicated, let me direct you to Sustainable Table’s Glossary of Meat Production. It gives the scoop on grass-fed, pasture-raised and all manner of tricky terms. To help you navigate, you can print it out, fold it up and bring it to the butcher counter.

We wish you best of luck code-cracking on your quest for conscious consumption.

Tags: Fair Trade, fair trade certified, green consumer, green labels, green living los angeles, green products, marine stewardship council, natural lable, organic seal, organic usda, transfair