Posted on 11/17/2004 5:38:24 PM PST by Veritas et equitas ad Votum
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Seems like a stupid issue to spend your "political capital" on.
The latter.
The GOP can be so bleeping stupid.
I'm with the GOP on this.
If you want to know where your food is coming from, ask the people that display it.
Here's the bottomline-
The extra labeling translates into higher pricing on your products. It's unnecessary clutter we did perfectly well without before they made it mandatory.
"I'm not sure about this issue. Is it an attempt to reduce the size of the federal government or a favor to multinational corporations at the expense of the American consumer? "
I vote for the latter.
ping
Why the freetraders do not like it? They should be proud of importing food instead of hiding it.
and that Mexican food will have all those "free" extras - like pesticides and disease. I'll be eating more stuff from italy.
"They should be proud of importing food instead of hiding it."
Exactly. Hiding something as basic as where a product is produced makes me very nervous.
Aren't we being told that importing pharmaceuticals from other countries might not be safe?
How is that different than importing food from other countries?
I want to know where the food my family eats comes from. Some of the underdeveloped countries use fertilizers that are repulsive.
The Stupid Party does it again. Great way to live up the image The Evil Party portrays them as being.
No, and yes.
I have the right to know what I purchase. If they have to put a made in the USA label on things, they should have to put a grown in the USA label on it too.
I live in Ireland.
A country that has 'disease free' status in Europe. (That's why the foot and mouth disease crisis that hit a couple of years back demanded that herds were culled and burned to eradicate the disease).
I will ONLY eat Irish beef.
Because, I am gauranteed that there is NO CJD cattle being slaughtered for human consumption.
I think as a consumer THAT is my right. If I want to by cheap imported cuts of meat, I can. But I don't. I want to KNOW where my meat and veg come from. And I'll pay for a product I'm confident in.
Hmmm we can't know where our food comes from but we can't buy drugs from Canada. That makes sense. The guys are a joke.
It sickens me how much influence the pharmaceutical industry has over Congress and the administration.
This "overdeveloped" country uses preservatives that are repulsive!!!
"The Agriculture Department has estimated the cost could range from hundreds of millions to billions of dollars in the first year alone."
What are the specific reasons for this extra cost?
What's to stop US meat producers from putting something like "Proudly Made in the USA" on their products? Consumers could easily look for that type of label in order to avoid other products with no such label.
why not just, "Trust us, it's safe!"?
That's true too!
What matters to me is I would like to know where the food I eat comes from, period.
Because US agri-business has been in the forefront in bringing in cheap and illegal labor, I will not shed a tear if many go out of business due to cheap imports.
That is a bad idea. I want to know where my food comes from. Particularly meat and vegatables.
More consumer knowledge is always a good thing, both for free markets and the economy in general.
"GOP seeks to repeal food labeling law"
This is not good. Only someone with something to hide would even suggest such a thing. Dumb move.
How about repealing Congessional perks instead...
I'm pretty sure about it - it's closer to "favor to multinational corporations at the expense of the American consumer."
These products already have labels on them, so there is no significant additional cost attached to the practice of labeling the country of origin. Food brought in from Mexico hasn't been raised with the same standards as food raised stateside. The result is lower (or at least 'different') quality. I have no problem with consumers having more information rather than less.
This isn't a bright issue for the GOP to spend some ofthat political capital on. They are wrong in this.
"No label = no sale."
There is nothing wrong with labeling food with the country of origin. In fact, I eat nothing from Mexico, so I definitely want it labeled.
What's wrong with some basic info like "made/grown in ...."?
What are we, mushrooms?
Sorry....I would like to know where the food I ingest comes from. If it's foreign, the companies importing it should have to label it. Everything else we purchase is labeled with country of origin....why should food be any different?
If you want to know do what people have done for centuries, ask your local clerk.
Knowing where the fruit or vegatable came from guarentees you nothing. They can be contaminated in another country or at any point of transit. I find it a vanity law, to be honest. Most Americans do not take time to search their produce for geographical locations.
There's an important active and related issue: ranchers and beef processors recently did not want a rancher/producer to advertise their beef as being free of Mad Cow Disease -- even after this one company paid for their own tests -- because it might force the rest of the industry to test for this disease.
The government claimed that this big marketing advantage to that one company (who was willing to pay for the tests) would have the effect of scaring consumers of all the other American beef -- beef grown and processed by companies not willing to pay for the expense of testing.
Our first term Bush (i.e. Republican) administration allowed banning the testing by this company and thus they could not claim that their beef was free of Mad Cow Disease for export markets, particularly to the picky Japanese market that cares about what they eat.
The Republican administration chose to protect domestic producers, and thus ruled against domestic consumers. For more details see Acres, USA (a liberal organic farmer magazine).
THE ONLY THING THE FDA SHOULD BE DOING IS PUTTING TRUTHFUL CONSUMER LABELING AND TESTING OF FOOD AND DRUGS... AND THAT INCLUDES COUNTRY OF ORIGIN!
Otherwise, these inbred departments can be eliminated.
The Republican party is way off the mark on this issue on labeling and consumer protection. This issue will reflect poorly on this second term. The press will be yelling "Fat Cat, Fat Cat... Halliburton food processors!" all over again."
Please remember the Clinton donor that got caught selling imported and tainted strawberries illegally to the school lunch program (no imports allowed) in Clinton's second term, I believe. These strawberries which made 100's of children sick were grown in a Central American country and they were contaminated with human excrement discharge. Those school kitchens thought they were from the U.S.
If you can't know what you're eating, then at least you should know where it came from.
Hoppy
>to favor multinational corporations at the expense of the American consumer<
Not only the consumer but at the expense (and demise) of the American farmer and fruit grower, for Petes sake!
IMO the Food & Drug Administration is far overstepping their job description.
I always buy Pictsweet brand frozen vegetables. "Grown in U.S.A".
Big tobacco lost billions for knowingly selling a harmful product.
Food contaminated by chemicals and human feces is harmful.
Therefore, LOOK OUT BIG FOOD!
(Oh. Big Food, keep records of who you are paying off. We'll let you off easier when we can take the retirement incomes of corrupt and dangerous political hacks and see to it that they are all hanged -- after a fair trial, of course.)
How more ill can the Republicrats, who snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, make us?
" Because US agri-business has been in the forefront in bringing in cheap and illegal labor,"
I like this point, and certainly imported food doesn't need to be picked or packaged by illegals in America.
If the US companies that employ illegals go out of business, will the illegals go home or drive labor costs down in other industries?
I'm starting to wonder how close we are to having a one-party government. While they put on a good show during campaigns and in press conferences, none of these people seem to put the American people at the top of their priority lists...
Yummy - get your Hepatitus A and B vaccinations before grocery shopping!
Truth in advertising. Charlize is South African.
What political capital are they spending?
I'd like to know that too. Adding a couple of words to a label costs nothing. Perhaps they're worried about the extra ink?
I really hope they don't do this. Time to get working on a garden in the Spring I guess.
Again...everything else we purchase shows country of origin...why shouldn food be exempted?
This is what you voted for, revell in it.
The democrats are a socialist nightmare. They pretend to care about us while they shove the knife between our ribs. Republicans just shove the thing in and look for another good spot to poke at for a larger percentage. But, they do have Rove to tell us it's good for us.. Who needs that label anyhow.. It only gives you some idea about whether what you're eating is going to make you ill or not. We can't be bothered with your well being when there's money to be made. And as the free traders would remind us, ethical considerations are anathema where money is concerned. The odd thing is that our forefathers would have had the sense to be incited by what we're putting up with now.
I'd like to know that too. Adding a couple of words to a label costs nothing. Perhaps they're worried about the extra ink?
There might the be added cost of verifying the information. Still, I say "Label it and let the consumer decide".
Some years ago there was a flap over whether or not dairy companies should label milk cartons as to whether or not their cows were given RbSt (a growth hormone that increased milk production). The dairy lobby said no labels, the FDA supported that saying that it was not considered an additive to the final product. How stupid are we? I will make the decisions about what edibles enter my house, thank you very much.
again: Label it and let the consumer decide!
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