Country of Origin Labeling Law
Food Chain Radio Show #1039
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Country of Origin Labeling Law – COOL
Guests: Michael Stumo, CEO of the Coalition for a Prosperous America
Where did your hamburger or veggie burger come?
It seems reasonable that we, the citizens of the United States, would want to know about the origins of the foods we purchase to eat. And so we asked our political representatives in Washington, D.C. to help us get that information, and they did, by passing the mandatory Country of Origin Labeling law (COOL).
COOL requires labeling on on meat products that states where livestock animals are born, where they are raised, and where they are slaughtered.
Though COOL was popular with consumers for the transparency it provides, it was unpopular with foreign producers– especially Canada and Mexico– and with food processors, who often mix meats from different sources in the same packages.
This conflict is now being placed center stage, as the World Trade Organization has authorized over a billion dollars in punitive sanctions against the U.S. because because COOL is “incompliant with WTO standards.”
The U.S. Congress, which passed COOL, has moved to repeal the law as part of budget authorization act.
This conflict leads us to ask you
Leave a comment below: Who should control what U.S. citizens may know about their food: the U.S Congress or the World Trade Organization?
Tune in here, for the syndicated Food Chain Radio Show #1039 December 19, 2015 Saturday 9AM Pacific
Neither. Our individual states should. The Federal government has no right to tell Vermont or any other state that they can’t label GMO’s, for instance. The closer to our table we can make the rules, the better.