Posted on 11/17/2004 12:37:51 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Telling consumers where their meat, fruit and vegetables came from seemed such a good idea to U.S. ranchers and farmers in competition with imports that Congress two years ago ordered the food industry to do it. But meatpackers and food processors fought the law from the start, and newly emboldened Republicans now plan to repeal it before Thanksgiving.
As part of the 2002 farm bill, country-of-origin labeling was supposed to have gone into effect this fall. Congress last year postponed it until 2006. Now, House Republicans are trying to wipe it off the books as part of a spending bill they plan to finish this month.
House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he expected the Senate to agree to repealing the measure, whose main champion two years ago was Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.
"I can't find any real opposition to doing exactly what we want to do here," Blunt said.
President Bush never supported mandatory labeling. Chances for repealing the law improved when Daschle, still his party's leader in the Senate, was defeating for re-election Nov. 2. Daschle indicated through a spokesman this week that he probably will not fight the repeal.
Those who want the repeal say the labeling system is so expensive that it far outweighs any benefit to consumers. The Agriculture Department has estimated the cost could range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in the first year alone.
"Everybody realized it was going to cost a lot of money, and ranchers were going to have to bear most of that," said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., chairman of a Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry subcommittee on the issue.
Food processors and other opponents of mandatory labeling say they are amenable to voluntary labels.
Grocery Manufacturers Association spokeswoman Stephanie Childs cited the government's voluntary standards for labeling organic food and said, "That's the sort of thing we should be looking toward."
Supporters of the labeling requirement says opponents want the repeal so producers will not have to spend money getting ready to follow the law. The House Agriculture Committee approved legislation this year to substitute a voluntary system for the current law.
The issue divides cattlemen and other livestock producers. Many of the bigger livestock and feedlot operations, as well as food processors, do not want mandatory labeling.
There are 4.5 million cattle and 2.9 million hogs in Missouri; Kansas has 6.65 million cattle and about 1.5 million hogs.
Producers in favor of mandatory labels believe consumers will prefer U.S.-grown food over foreign imports. The law requires companies to put country-of-origin labels on meat, vegetables and fruit.
"We really feel that country-of-origin labeling is one of the key things we need to keep ourselves competitive in that market. I understand the trade-offs," said Doran Junek, a rancher in Brewster, Kan. Junek also is executive director of the Kansas Cattlemen's Association, an affiliate of R-CALF United Stockgrowers of America.
Consumer groups say the issue is whether buyers have a right to know where their food came from.
"When nutrition labeling was suggested by advocates 25 years ago, the industry kept saying, `Oh, we can't do that,'" said Carol Tucker Foreman, director of food policy for the Consumer Federation of America. "Look, they've done it. They love it. Consumers use it."
The wrangling does not affect fish because Congress did not include fish last year when it delayed the mandatory labeling. Fresh and frozen fish will be required to carry labels beginning in April.
Yeah, that was my point. BUT... if it only applied to raw fruits and vegetables, processors wouldn't have to be hasseled with it. The problem is the food nazis wouldn't stop at just raw fruits and vegetables. The law of unintended consequences would soon catch up.
Since Blunt is my congressman I called his office to complain about this. His spokesman said that the intent is to only require identification on foreign produce and meats. Domestic producers will not be required to spend the money to identify their products. He said that the Dept. of Agriculture is wanting to require each piece of meat to be followed from the birth of the animal to its placement on the market shelf.This would be extremely expensive for domestic producters.
I want a vegetable garden and one of the first things I will grow will be green onions because they are so unsafe to risk buying at the store. (They can't be easily cleaned of feces)
BTTT!!!!!!
Yes you are probably right. I am surprised by the number of conservatives on here who are calling for more regulations in their lives. It seems to me that the few problems America has faced to date with imported food products does not yet call for labeling.
Muleteam1
No kidding. For all the other gazzilionbillion dollars these shems and poseurs spend, I'll go for this.
FMCDH(BITS)
I just like to know the food I'm buying is fresh. For example, if the apples say Product of New Zealand at this time of year I know they're really 7 months old and likely to be mushy and nasty. Same thing for Washington apples in June.
All the cattle that have tested positive for Mad Cow disease (in the US) have been imported.
Let's see..open boarders..testing every kid for "mental" wellness..no labeling on the foods we eat..I, for one, want my freaking vote back.
Who the heck do these people think they are. And I'll tell ya something else..the way it looks..we can call, write, email and write to our hearts content..but if THEY want to do it, they will do it.
The live cow that tested positive for BSE last Christmas was imported from Canada.
Well, don't think of it that way...Fruits and vegetables are very perishable...They generally get "canned" in the proximity of their harvest...
There are numerous "canning" factories in my area...Although you can buy all the canned okra you could eat at the grocery, I have yet to see a truckload of fresh picked okra on the highway in this state...That's not the way it works...
That's it. From now on, being a "Red-State" hick, I'll just grow my own damned vegtables, and I'll KNOW where they came from....
I don't know about the law but I was recently at Wally-World checking out their sea food...Their display case is a freezer with a glass front so you can see to pick your sea food...
To my surprise, each display pan had a little plaque with the name of the item and for the first time, the name of the country where this stuff came from...And stupid me, I assumed all this sea food came from the U.S...
Numerous pans full of shrimp...One from Taiwan, some from China, one from Cambodia...None from the U.S...Atlantic King Salman came from China (I'm still thinkin about that one)...Amongst all of the fish, scallops, barbecued crayfish, etc., not a single piece harvested from the U.S...
I like these labels...I will never again buy seafood from Wal-Mart...
Muleteam1
If the rest of the world lives with parasites and worms there is no reason why Americans shouldn't do the same.
All your fecal green onions are belong to us.
"a clause in the NAFTA that prohibited the national identification of food so to prevent undue consumer awareness that might lead to an undue discrimination on the part of consumers. I want to know where my food is grown, processed, and manufactured so I can properly discriminate against those countries where their product may kill me and my family because of the pesticides and fecal content therein."
Food discrimination, now that is food for thought (thought crimes, hate crimes, where does it end). I too would like to avoid countries with the latest outbreak in disease; i.e., mad cow, bird flu, poor handling, etc. That should be my right as a consumer.
Guess I'll just use products that decide to voluntarily lable.
Then you would have no problem if country of origin tags were removed from clothing, appliances, tools, roofing and siding, electronics, etc...Correct???
Hey hedge, haven't been on here a while good to see your still here.
I'll go one further. It is so we are not aware that soon, like our manufacturing, is no longer done in America, we will import more and more produce and food products too. America's new role as Wal-Mart of the Globe (i.e., just a place to buy stuff made elsewhere).
The Doha Declaration on trade aspects of intellectual property rights, which is a treaty the United States signed, says that governments can violate intellectual property rights of pharmaceutical companies by producing their drugs in country, rather than purchasing them from abroad.
The pharmaceutical companies, in order to protect their IP, use the piggyback pricing to price the drugs in those countries low enough so that they don't try to produce the drugs themselves.
This is because of the WTO and the Doha treaty. Both the Republican and Democrat parties are signing up to treaties that are not even with other countries, but with globalist organizations, like the WTO. These treaties are harming American leadership in the production of pharmaceuticals and American prosperity.
Chapter 6, the Doha declaration. Everyone should read it, because it has become a source of law in the United States, whether it is constitutional or not.
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