un-COOL

Posted on July 8, 2007
by Maureen Keene

Country of Origin Labeling is becoming a hot topic and for good reason.  The U.S. imported nearly $65 billion in food last year, double the amount of 10 years ago.  Yet only a miniscule 1% of food imports are inspected every year.  With the recent spate of contaminated and sometimes deadly foods imported from China, country of origin is obviously something every consumer should be concerned about.  Companies that sell packaged and processed foods are not required to print on the label where ingredients originated and that must change.  However, as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, country of origin labeling is required on beef, pork, lamb, fresh fruits and vegetables, seafood and peanuts.   So five years later, why is only seafood labeled properly?  The credit goes largely to the powerful beef lobby and their influential friends in Washington including former Congressman Henry Bonilla (R-TX) who made the following comment: 

“No one was prohibited from putting labels on products… If consumers wanted this, they could have demanded it.”

I don’t know Henry,  but he sounds like a jerk.  However, supercilious as his remark was, he had a point.

Well, now we can demand it.  The USDA is accepting public comments on COOL until Aug. 20, 2007.  Go to their website (under Search Documents, choose Document ID in the pull down menu in Step 4 and enter Document ID AMS-LS-07-0081-0001) and post a comment stating that you want mandatory labeling for all meat, seafood, produce and nuts as outlined in the 2002 Farm Bill to go into effect now.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Bookmark to:

Comments