Food Labeling and Advertising
Food Chain Radio Show #1257
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
America’s Big Beef
Guest: Bill Bullard CEO, R-CALF USA
The label lies, and it does so with the blessings of the United States Department of Agriculture.
The label on the beef steaks can say, “Product of the USA,” but in fact, the steaks contained in the package can really be the product of anywhere in the world.
New Mexico rancher Michael Lucero and consumer Robin Thorton took exception to this quirky labelling, and filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging the nation’s Big Four beef packers had violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by putting foreign beef in packages labeled “Product of the USA.”
But the federal court dismissed their lawsuit on grounds that the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which is administered by USDA, preempts any state law that attempts to require labels or advertisements that are different than those approved by the USDA.
In other words, the federal court claims that the feds are in charge of labeling and advertising food.
But RCALF USA and Public Justice have objected to the ruling. In a friend of the court brief, David Muraskin explained, “A ruling that advertising claims are preempted by the Federal Meat Inspection Act would take away an important tool consumers use to ensure corporate meat producers do not mislead the public about their products.”
This conflict over who should control the advertising of food, and the supply of the nation’s beef, leads us to ask:
Leave a comment: How much truth is in the advertising of food?
Is it possible to mail order beef and buy directly from the source/rancher – kind of like the way Omaha Steaks used to be?
I am a farmer and raised organic vegetables and meat chickens for 13 years and now only 100% grassfed beef for 14 years. I am telling you now – Virtually everything about food is either completely misleading or a damn lie! This is accurate in all aspects of the system. The only way to have any idea of reality is to visit the farm and do so annually and at different dates. There are more weasel words in food production than anywhere else. Look at our citizens, we may be the sickest rich people (by world standards) in the world and our school
systems are to blame along with the the USda! Lobbyists own the entire spectrum of food.