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 ...
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.)
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