Friday, June 12, 2015

In the dead of night the House voted to repeal a law requiring country-of-origin labels on packages of beef, pork and poultry

"The House voted 300-131 late Wednesday to repeal labels that tell consumers what countries the meat is from — for example, "born in Canada, raised and slaughtered in the United States" or "born, raised and slaughtered in the United States." The Senate has yet to act."
Canada and Mexico have opposed the labeling because it causes their animals to be segregated from those of U.S. origin — a costly process that has led some U.S. companies to stop buying exports.

The bill would go beyond just the muscle cuts of red meat that were covered under the WTO case, repealing country-of-origin labeling for poultry, ground beef and ground pork. The chicken industry has said the labeling doesn't make much sense for poultry farmers because the majority of chicken consumed in the United States is hatched, raised and processed domestically.

The legislation would leave in place country-of-origin labeling requirements for several other commodities, including lamb, venison, seafood, fruits and vegetables and some nuts.
Slaughter houses and meat packets are under strict food safety regulations here. Can the same be said for Canada and Mexico?

5 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The WTO ruled against the labels last year, prompting the appeal that was again rejected in May. The Obama administration has already revised the labels once to try to comply with previous WTO rulings, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it's now up to Congress to change the law to avoid retaliation from the two countries.

&

"The only way for the United States to avoid billions in retaliation by late summer is to ensure legislation repealing (country of origin labeling) passes the Senate and is signed by the president," said Canadian Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Gerry Ritz.

Retaliation. How nice. I'm curious how this fits in with organic beef?


So the democrats are hiding behind the R-party here? R-party must do the dirty work to keep Mexico and Canada happy? Do both parties want this or just the R-party?
Will Obama sign it? Will Obama be skewered in the media for his signature?

chickelit said...

Slaughter houses and meat packets are under strict food safety regulations here. Can the same be said for Canada and Mexico?

If not, it's just another example of unilateral trade suicide on our part.

ricpic said...

Labels? We don' need no steenkin' labels!

edutcher said...

A lot of stuff is being done in the dark of night these days.

This never ends well.

Methadras said...

I actually don't mind country of origin and processing origin labels. It will hopefully tell me which mexican and chinese crap to avoid.