Country of origin labeling on our meat
no longer required
From Mary Clare Jalonick, Organic Consumers Association
It's now harder to find out where your beef or pork was born, raised and slaughtered.
After
more than a decade of wrangling, Congress repealed a labeling law last month
that required retailers to include the animal's country of origin on packages
of red meat.
It's a major victory for the meat industry, which had fought the
law in Congress and the courts since the early 2000s.
Lawmakers
said they had no choice but to get rid of the labels after the World Trade
Organization repeatedly ruled against them. The WTO recently authorized Canada
and Mexico, which had challenged the law, to begin more than $1 billion in
economic retaliation against the United States.
"U.S. exporters can now breathe a sigh of relief," said Republican Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. The longtime opponent of the labels helped add the repeal to a massive year-end spending bill.
After the law was passed, Agriculture
Secretary Tom Vilsack said the government immediately would stop
requiring the labels.
Consumer
groups say the repeal is a disappointment just as consumers are asking for more
information on their food packages. Advocates say the labels help people make
more informed buying decisions and encourage purchases of American meat.
Before
repeal, the labels told shoppers that a particular cut of meat was "born
in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States" or "born,
raised and slaughtered in the United States."
Congress first required the
labels in 2002 amid fears of mad cow disease from imported cattle. The labels
weren't on most packages until 2009, though, due to delays pushed by the meat
industry.
Read
more at ENN Affiliate, Organic Consumers Association.