Say Good-Bye To ‘COOL’: Congress Repeals Country-Of-Origin Meat Labeling Rule

huffingtonpost.com ^ | December 21, 2015 | Samantha Cowan

[ilovesarah2012]

Thanks to a label that reads “Product of the USA,” consumers have been able to find out a package of steaks or pork chops in the freezer section at their local grocery store came from America. But soon meat lovers will be hard-pressed to figure out whether the animals on their dinner plates were raised and slaughtered—in the States or halfway around the world.

[cripplecreek]

It doesn’t forbid a company from labeling their products as American sourced. It says they don’t have to.

[boycott]

Correction: Our REPUBLICAN Congressmen have sold us down the river, and are not even trying to hide it.

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So true.

[null and void]

My son points out that American chickens are shipped to China for processing and shipped back to be sold here as ‘Made in USA’ chickens.

He has a side bet that one day we’ll ship them 5 tons of bird, and get 15 back, and no one will bat an eye.

More worrisome when it’s pork/long pig, I suppose...

[Laxfan3]

I would!!

[Farmer Dean]

Would I get in trouble if I started offering Angus and Hereford beef sides on here?Or free range chickens?

[Will88]

Anyone who was fine with no labeling of GMO food should be fine with no COOL labeling, It’s all the same ball of wax: Big (Globalist) Brother deciding what you need to know and what you don’t need to know.

[Leaning Right]

Too bad this legislation will forbid labeling the country of origin.

So now a producer cannot even label his own product. Anyone here still want to argue that we live in a free society? Anyone? Bueller?

[Bigg Red]

Ditto!

[Bigg Red]

Give me a ping if you start selling it online. (I live in MD.)

[silverleaf]

Only one reason to do this and it's not in our interests

Somehow I doubt if Upton Sinclair could get into a Chinese slaughterhouse and meatpacking plant. I think I will be taking a pass on chinese made sausage

[Oatka]

With beef from Argentina, you can usually see where the Jockey hit the animal.

I did a short-term gig in Venezuela in the late '80s. The first time I went to a butcher shop, I saw that the meat was a deep burgundy color without a trace of marbling. I asked the guy where it came from and he said "Argentina".

The locals told me the color came from the cattle being range-fed and not penned up and doped like in the States. You could almost cut the meat with your fork. When I got back home, our scarlet-red meat looked fake.

[sheana]

I buy all my meat from a nearby small meat market that sells only Harris Ranch beef. It is a ranch on I-5 north of us by Fresno. I know exactly where my meat comes from.......they also have the best pork and chicken.
Once I started buying their meat I couldn’t stand to eat even the best meats from a grocery store. And their fresh ground sausage and hamburger is the best I’ve tasted. My granddaughter will come visit if she hears I’m cooking their platter bacon. Lol

[Flick Lives]

It doesn’t forbid a company from labeling their products as American sourced. It says they don’t have to

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I tried to find an article that definitely stated labeling was allowed. I could not find one. Since congress buried this in a 1000 page bill, I have my suspicions.

[ken in texas]

Too bad this legislation will forbid labeling the country of origin.

Then perhaps they could subtly identify where it is not from. </s

[jjotto]

It is allowed. That was the point.

A lot of countries put tariffs on US products because the US mandates COOL. By relying on retailers to voluntarily use COOL (instead of government mandate), barriers to US exports are reduced.

[Cementjungle]

With beef from Argentina, you can usually see where the Jockey hit the animal.

Argentina produces some of the best beef in the world. That's one of the things I look forward to whenever I go there.

[Yaelle]

Harris Ranch is pretty much grass fed.

[TribalPrincess2U]

Us peons can’t get a break on knowing what the hell we’re eating!

I don’t care how it’s killed. I just want to know WHO FED IT, WHERE THE HELL IT COMES.

IS THAT TOO MUCH To ASK? Why do they want to keep it a secret?
If all countries did right by the way they produced the food, we might not be so pissed, but does our government even care what comes in? Hell no!

[HomerBohn]

The Chinese, who now own the largest pork producer in the world, especially want this. They can sell their unfattened hogs in America now.

The big problem will be the fish. Much of it comes from China and Vietnam where it’s farm raised and the locals shit in the stream.

Our fishing industries are effectively killed by our central socialist government.

[trisham]

Smart American producers who continue to label their products as being American in origin will continue to get my business.

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And mine as well.