Vilsack Issues COOL Rules

Ughh... (4.00 / 1)

This does nothing to address the fact that all meat sold at butcher shops or fish markets are exempt from COOL, or the fact that a bag of frozen mixed vegetables is considered "processed" (so is fruit salad) because a few different foods are mixed together.

Yeah, I remember that.  What a joke...

If the peas are frozen with carrots, we have no right to know where they come from?

Forget that, I'll always know where my peas and carrots come from.  Oregon or Washington farmers...

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by: JayinPortland @ Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 02:01:24 AM CST

off-topic (4.00 / 1)

Sock Clinton died. I'm so sad!

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 02:04:09 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Heard about that... :( (4.00 / 1)

Terrible news...

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by: JayinPortland @ Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 02:30:28 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Some processed foods/components are already labeled (4.00 / 2)

while some are not. For instance - the beef boullion cubes in my cubbord are labeled 'Product of Mexico', the bamboo shoots(canned) are labeled 'Product of China', the Fred Meyer brand of canned mushrooms are labeled 'Product of Indonesia', the Fred Meyer canned tomatoes are labeled 'Made in USA' which I take to mean that they were canned in USA, not that the tomatoes, herbs and spices in the can were necessarily from the USA. I've seen country of origin labeling on frozen vegetables, but I don't see any on the Norpack frozen vegies I have in the freezer. Considering that Norpack is a coop, and I see the plant in Woodburn idle in the off season, I have more confidence in their produce being domestically produced, but since there isn't a label on the package I have no way of actually knowing for sure.

I have been researching the commercial (large scale national/international) meat industry for a couple of years now, and from what I've seen, due to how the industry is structured right now, I don't think they can comply with COOL with anything other than a multi country label for everything. Not unless they only run livestock in specific batches and segregate everything. Some slaughter houses can do that. Country Natural Beef contracts with a feed lot and a slaughter house, but they are selling their own product direct to restaraunts, stores, etc., in a scaled up version of what the small local producers do. They control all their own cattle, the feeding at the feed yard is done to their own spec, and the slaughter is done to their spec and they handle the distribution. Country Natural is an invitation only co-op, so they can do that where a regular packer is, supposedly, prohibited. My own local supplier of beef and pork is set up the same way. She has a federally inspected slaughter house, and processes her and her sister's own cattle and sheep as well as processing for other producers who need inspection. The sole reason I started buying beef and pork from her direct is that I wanted tracability, and to buy local, US produced meats, and she could provide that, Fred Meyer, Kroger, Wal-Mart, Safeway, etc. can't do that.

Which is, yet another reason, to buy locally if one can. I've always said that there are things that the different production models can provide, there is some overlap, but the two models are so different, that the overlap is minimal.

In the large industrial system, meats go from slaughter house, to packing/processing, to fabricators, to smoke houses, plants that make processed meat products like sausage, etc.. Add to that, that while we only import live cattle and swine from Mexico and Canada for growing and slaughter, fresh/chilled/frozen meats for further fabrication and processing are imported from many countries. Fresh/chilled/frozen beef is imported from no less than 10 different countries.

In addition, what some consumers were requesting was that in addition to labeling which meats, vegetables, and/or fruits were in a processed product, they wanted to know where the seasoning, oils, etc. came from. While I would like to know these things as well, I also understand it's not possible right now.

One of the problems, in some cases, with foods that are processed in some ways and to some degrees, is that the components come from so many different sources, and through so many different channels, that you'd have a problem finding a label big enough to hold all the countries of origin.

Simple foods, like a fruit salad, using only the fresh fruit and no sweeteners, would be doable, as you would only have a few countries of origin, and, especially if the salad were cut and packaged at the store, where they can easily keep track of what came from where, or even at a plant where they ran simple batches with minimal extra ingredients, labeling would be feasable.

While I was a huge fan of COOL and still am, I also understand that there are certain limitations to the current situation with retail meats and a lot of other products being sold in the large, national and international chain stores. They simply can't provide the tracability that a small producer marketing meat from their own animals can. That's why it's so important to continue to promote the local food systems around the country and expand them.

As far as local butcher shops and COOL. The best way to know where their meats are coming from, is to ask where they source their meats. If they say local, ask what farms they use, or which slaughter house. Then you can contact the farm and/or slaughter house and follow up on that.

Short of that, I think people are going to have to accept that what they are eating, if they are buying from the national/international chains is going to be a national/internationaly sourced product.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sat Feb 21, 2009 at 14:45:36 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Well, (4.00 / 1)

I must say, I take back my words with some big reservations with regard to the large packers ability to label meats as to specific country of origin, especially if they are sourcing from both completely and mixed source beef and swine, but....

Today I was at my local Fred Meyer, in Canby, Oregon, this morning and I did see various labels on the packaged meats. Product of USA, Canada; Product of USA, Canada, Mexico; and Product of USA. This was beef and pork muscle cuts, and ground beef as well as ground pork. Fredy's sources a lot of their red meats from Inter American Products, a division of Kroger corp., Fred Meyer is owned by Kroger as well. I have no idea who Inter American buys their red meats from, and I still have little confidence in the labels, but at least the labels are on.

It'll be interesting to see what, if any, audits are done by USDA on meats sold in the large chains, and if those audits are done, their results.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Sun Feb 22, 2009 at 14:17:46 PM CST