Beef products should be labeled as “Made in the USA,” or “Product of the USA” or “USA beef” only if they come from cattle born, raised and harvested in the United States, according to the majority of comments on a petition.
Most of the nearly 1,900 people and organizations who’ve provided comments on the petition…
Country of origin labeling for meat once involved lofty policy debates in Congress and international bodies like the World Trade Organization.
Now two influential groups have decided it would help domestic producers and consumers alike if USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) would change its policies. The Lincoln, NE-based Organization for Competitive Markets and…
Opponents who could not see the issue more differently have nonetheless put the decision in the hands of a federal judge who heard the arguments last month, and she has not yet decided. At issue is whether USDA was wrong to remove mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements after it was instructed by Congressional…
At least 30 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, are already open for new legislative business. Most others will join the legislative season by next month.
They are essential to food safety if for no other reason than state legislatures provide all or partial funding for many of the nation’s nearly 3,000…
In public policy, as in life, learning from past mistakes is a cardinal rule for success. That is why it was disappointing to see Thomas Gremillion from the Consumer Federation of America advocate for the reinstatement of mandatory country-of-origin labelling (MCOOL) for beef and pork in a recent guest opinion column on the Food Safety …
This week marks the beginning of formal talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, an agreement President Donald Trump has called the “worst deal in history.” To make it a better deal, his Administration released a set of negotiating objectives last month, but they ignored the most outrageous example of how American consumers…
Mandatory country-of-origin-labeling bills for beef and ground beef made it out of committees in Pierre and Cheyenne, but got no further in the farm and ranch friendly South Dakota and Wyoming Legislatures.
Senate Bill 135 went down in the South Dakota Senate on Feb. 25. It would have required grocery stores in the Rushmore State…
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) is accepting comments and suggestions that it calls “submissions” until March 4 at 6 p.m. Canberra time on planned changes for country of origin labeling rules. The changes are unlikely to generate the sort of controversy that was experienced in the United States when Congress erased country of origin…
Effective immediately, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says, USDA will no longer enforce the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirements for beef and pork products because COOL was repealed by Congress.
Vilsack said labeling regulations on the books will be amended “as expeditiously as possible” to bring the beef and pork provisions into line. It means…
