| Starting this month, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) will start to enforce country of origin labeling for your food. Referred to as COOL (does someone actually have that job to think of all these acronyms?), these labeling requirements apply to meat, fish, nuts, and fruits and vegetables.
COOL was first passed in the 2002 Farm Bill and again in the 2008 Farm Bill (the bill comes up every 5 years). However, even if a measure is passed in legislation, sometimes it gets watered down, has its purpose altered, doesn't get funded, or for some reason or other, just doesn't happen. This is what has happened with COOL and why it's taken so many years and so much effort on the part of advocacy groups to finally see it carried out. On a side note, this part of the policy process is referred to as "implementation," and requires the watchful eye and efforts of advocates to make sure those policy gains actually come to fruition. Anyways, the implementation of COOL took quite a bit of time and effort, as it will finally materialize this month - almost six years after it was first passed.
However, speaking again to the challenges of implementation, there's a pretty big loophole in this labeling system - processed foods aren't included. So this pretty much leaves out the whole middle section of the grocery store. For example - those big bags of peanuts still in their shells will sport a label bearing their home country's name while that small bag of sugary, roasted peanuts in the snack aisle won't have any addition to its shiny plastic bag.
There's another part of this new regulatory system that some producers aren't pleased with either. Meat or poultry that is born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the U.S. will get a U.S. sticker - seems pretty simple. However, with our industrialized food system, products are commonly shipped to different countries for various stages of processing and the end product can contain parts from different origins. For this, there are mixed labels. However, the mixed label can create advantages and disadvantages for producers of different sizes while at the same time creating confusion for consumers.
Yet another complication here is funding (or "appropriations" in Washington-speak). There is currently $1 million marked towards COOL labeling, which is just how much it would cost for the fish and shellfish component (which has been in effect since 2004). Now that they're finally getting around to adding meat, nuts, and produce (both fresh and frozen), the USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory programs said that it will take close to an additional $10 million to enforce the labeling. So this money would have to be found through agriculture appropriations, which is money distributed to all programs with discretionary funding (as opposed to mandatory money, which is already included in the allotted money for the bill, like the $280 billion or so in the case of the Farm Bill) that the Ag committee doles out.
So the end of the story here is that you will be seeing country-of-origin labeling coming soon to a grocery store near you. But, geez, did whoever was responsible (maybe the Undersecretary of Marketing and Regulatory Systems for Garments, Footwear, and other Accessories?) for getting the country of manufacture onto the tag of your shirt have such a difficult time, too? Probably.
For more info on COOL, check out this USA Today article:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/...
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