LaVidaLocalvore has some interesting discussion, with links to further reading, on the new Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) that is supposed to start this month. COOL is good in and of itself, it should be used to label foods coming into our country so consumers know if their infant formula, milk, dog food, etc came from China in whole or in part. The recent food poisonings coming out of that country emphasis how important it is to know where your food comes from and what is in it. Sadly COOL is filled with exemptions for processed foods making it virtually useless.
A major concern is that COOL will be used to push the USDA’s invasive proposed National Animal Identification System (NAIS) down our throats. The USDA may claim they need 100% voluntary compliance with NAIS to implement COOL.
The FSIS/USDA, which handles labeling issues, is not too clear on exactly what is required for COOL. For example, our pastured pork label gives our address and says “Pastured Pigs Bred, Born & Raised on Our Vermont Farm”. Our label also has our address on it. One would think that meets the COOL requirements very clearly. The pigs are from our farm. They were born here. Our farm is in Vermont. Everyone in the USA knows that Vermont is in the United States - at least they should know so after going through the government’s indoctrination program, er, I mean public education. Ergo, our label quite clearly states the country of origin as being the USA.
But, all is not so clear to people at FSIS/USDA. I asked, “is our label in compliance with COOL” and was told no.
Thank you for your question regarding the country of origin labeling program (COOL). Based on your description, your label is not sufficient to comply with the COOL regulation. This response provides some context which may help determine whether the products derived from your animals are required to bear COOL declarations.
COOL is a consumer right-to-know labeling law that requires retailers to notify their customers of the country of origin of covered commodities. The law defines a retailer as a firm that purchases an invoice amount of perishable agricultural commodities (fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables) in excess of $230,000 per year. In essence, that means most grocery stores and supermarkets. To the extent your products are sold in such regulated retail establishments, those retailers are required to provide country of origin information on products derived from your animals. Sales through a farm stand, farmer’s market, direct sales to consumers or other sales to institutions or food service establishments are exempt from this labeling law.
The law allows the use of state, regional or locality labeling in lieu of the country of origin declaration for perishable agricultural commodities, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and ginseng, only. State, regional or locality designations are not acceptable in lieu of country of origin labeling for meat products. If your products are sold by a retailer subject to this labeling law, the products derived from your animals will have to indicate they are a product of the U.S.
email communications with:
Kenneth M. Becker
Marketing Specialist - Country of Origin Labeling
USDA-AMS, Livestock and Seed Program
Interestingly, I got exactly the opposite answer from another USDA/FSIS supervisor saying our label is fine and Vermont is sufficient on the label since Vermont is in the USA. Logically one would think that this second answer is correct. Not to be snobby but since we sell in Vermont I’m sure all of our customers know that Vermont is within the USA.
I’m not too happy with the idea of throwing away 15,000 labels just because somebody at the USDA who makes regulations doesn’t know their geography. At this point I have asked the butcher if he can print “Made in USA” on the labels when applying the weight and product names to the packages. Maybe that will work as a stop gap measure.
There are the strange clauses in COOL that allow processed foods to be exempted from the labeling. So our hot dogs, which contain our pork, maple syrup, milk and salt are not be required to have a COOL label. Our smoked bacon and hams aren’t required to have COOL labels. Apparently a bag of mixed peas and carrots is exempt from the rules. This exemption seems nonsensical and specifically designed for big producers to sneak around the COOL regulations. After all, the consumer as a right to know, according to Mr. Becker above.
I like the idea of COOL but it should be applied to incoming foods. All foods should be covered, processed or not. State, local and regional designations should obviously be accepted for all foods just as they are for ginseng. COOL appears to be going to be used as a wedge to bring NAIS in our back door - an unpleasant prospect. The USDA calls NAIS voluntary but they’re doing everything they can to force it down our throats and make it mandatory in reality.
COOL is just an interim rule so we’ll see what happens with this flawed implementation of Country Of Origin Labeling. COOL definitely has the flavor of one step forward, a step to the side and two steps backward.
Oh my, it’s not OK to say it’s from Vermont without specifically saying that Vermont is in the USA? That idiot regulator needs to be introduced to Google Maps.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve heard 1 thing from one person in govt and the exact opposite from someone else. I think the correct term for that is “the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
Thanks for the shout-out for my site (La Vida Locavore). If you check there now, Judith just put up an anti-NAIS post about traceability.
Comment Jill Richardson — September 17, 2008 @ 9:35 pm
Since when is meat not perishable? The last time I checked it has to kept cold or frozen; otherwise it can be salted, smoked or dried to perserve it.
Is that $230,000 total purchases or just one type of perishable? Typically vauge gov speak. I deal with it all the time. And you hit on something that I also run into all the time, one person reads it one way and another gets something totally different and then I throw my own interpertaion into the mix. Boy is that fun to do.
Comment Lorene — September 18, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
Maybe they think Vt seceded and isnt in the USA anymore,if the BS from DC keeps up maybe they should along with all the rest of us,then Mordor on the Potomac can regulate itsself to its hearts content,(sigh)well a fella can dream can’t he?
I spent Tuesday in the state capital(Pa.)meeting with senators or their staff persons Pa. has 50 senators it was an all day long exercise.
I was there at the invite of National Veterans Committie on Constitutional Affairs to cover the NAIS relationship to Real ID, so as soon as NVCCA reps finished their info session I was able to step right in and link the two together and show how they plan to track EVERYTHING.
There are still many who know nothing of this NAIS which seems amazing to those of us who hear about it most everyday,education,thats where we must keep hammering!
In regards to Real ID the fight is on! We only have a week and a half to defeat it here or it all goes back to square one after the election,but rest assured we will reintroduce the bill to kill Real ID in this state as well as continueing to aid activists in other states who are fighting their own battles.
Vasage is the company that owns Real ID now having bought out 2 or 3 competitors to basicly corner the market.
They tell us it is for our safety and that it is not a national ID card,BUT I have seen the slide they show to their investors and it plainly calls this a national ID card,folks your state is losing its right to operate its own drivers license centers and to regulate that area within its own borders,we are being homogenized into a cheap vanilla flavored nation with no states rights or personal ones either!
The internal papers I saw clearly show step 123 for Real ID #1 is the law enforcement/military use of Real ID such as they have been jawing about for a few years now,but its the other two that are really scary and they deny.#2 relates to sevices like riding a bus or seeing a doctor #3 covers commerce,meaning youll need a Real ID card to buy groceries or anything else for that matter all POS (point of sales transactions)
The powers that be are working overtime to make sure you become a totally dependent serf and that they and they only decide your life as well as what you own(nothing) and purchase(whatever they tell you to),we are intended to be slaves to a fascist corporation operating worldwide, owning regulating and controlling everyone and everything,thats the bad news!
The good news is we can beat them at their game but only if we quit playing it their way,time to quit being fooled by the corporate media and their govicorp shills who want us to believe if we just give them some more slack they can fix this mess,Folks America aint broke she is just being displaced by a corrupt two party corporation who is scared to death that “we the people” may just one day decide we dont want to play this game anymore,that we might actually learn the truth
about their corrupt and morally bankrupt system; and the real extent of their crimes that we might fight back!
The time is now to fight back, to not buy what they say to buy, to not honor their regulations,to not give them or their ilk the time of day!
Its time to keep doing what we’re doing and to double the effort,yes I’m cheerleading again but thats what I do,and what I will do till they bury me or I see this land and her people free again! We can dispair and give up or we can bite kick and claw till we draw enough blood that our opponent decides it aint worth it,otherwise they win and that is not an option,period!
Look into real id for yourself,see how it is so similar to NAIS and its 123 implimentation schedule,just like NAIS,thats ’cause the same tyrants are behind it,pushing it and inciting situations useful to forwarding their agenda,
it’ll get real nasty after the elections are over,no matter who buys the presidentcy,lets take back our nation, our liberty,our farms and our persons, lets give em hell! thanks.
“LIVE FREE OR DIE TRYIN”
Comment Lee — September 18, 2008 @ 1:36 pm
must be back in the free zone,all alone,no new comments for several days now,nais all around trying to tag my cow,must keep up my spirit even if by myself,no new comments the nonaisers must have left.
Comment nick — September 24, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
“..the nonaisers must have left..”
No I was in court watching the judge turn criminals loose, It was disgusting. The DA did not even bother to have the arresting cops present so without wittneses everyone goes free. The only one I saw get fined was some poor sucker who was pressing charges and had not shown up for the court date. Each day they start at the beginning of the alphabet so a criminal named Williams never gets a pelim. hearing until there has been no crime for months! I just got continued for the 4th time, GRRRrrr
Does anyone know if farmers get to go thru court or does the USDA just take our money, farm and slap us in jail?
Comment Snazy snezy — September 25, 2008 @ 12:43 pm
Snazy- Don’t know your particulars but contact me at Shady_Knoll@yahoo.com Might be able to help.
Comment Paul-Martin:Griepentrog — September 25, 2008 @ 3:53 pm
Which came first-COOL or contaminated food? Early NAIS documents showed in black in white it was the plan all along to allow a contaminated food epidemic across America so that the public would demand the NAIS. Brilliant psy-ops, it’s working.
Comment Bamidbar — September 26, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
cool, i have always been for it and still am ,but i am afraid it does not have the teeth it should have. my wife was a the grocery store the other day,over by the meat market,(walter you will not be proud of this)she picked up a package of pork chops,it was labeled product of us or canada. other meats were labeled, maybe product of mexico,canada,or us. they dont even say usofa.shame on the usda,they just seem to say and do what they want not hearing the we the people want this not that.
Comment nick — September 26, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
LOL, Nick it looks like traceability is really working, hahahahahaha I wonder how long it will take for a trackback.
Comment Gisela — September 27, 2008 @ 11:42 pm
we need to call our senators and congress repts. and tell them, we have not become the north american union yet, that we the people dont want a north american label on the meat and produce in the food marts,that we the people want and demand food be labeled with the country that it comes from ,that nothing else will do.gisela you are right,how can there be any kind of trace back if there ARE problems with any of these meats,there could not. THIS JUST SHOW NAIS IS NOT ABOUT TRACE BACK OF A PROUDUCT .IT IS ABOUT GOVT. CONTROL AND PACKER PROFITS.
Comment nick — September 29, 2008 @ 9:39 pm
walter,things sure quite around here,i know we may not have much to say,but the least the nonaisers could do is to check in and say howdy.
Comment nick — October 10, 2008 @ 9:39 pm
I went to the store yesterday and no meat was labeled ANYTHING. It said “inspected in the US”. Also, nearly all meat had something injected in it or added to it so it would not be considered a requirement to tell you where it was from. Bloody irritating.
Comment Doreen — October 11, 2008 @ 6:33 am
I looked at a steak in HEB and in very small print, almost phone book size, it stated product of Canada, USA, Mexico.
Hopefully they will have to do better than that after this phase in period. I thought they could do that for ground beef but a steak?
Comment Mary Beth — October 11, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
OJ concentrate in the store was marked product of US and Brazil, the other brand listed four countries. Consumers are confused as well, having read the information on the COOL site. To ad insult to injury the manager at the local sales barn was asked if the affidavit stated United States of America origin where your cattle part of the National Corporate Herd to which he replied YES. They are also requiring that feed and drug affidavits be renewed every years and one even stated that the packers would have the right to inspect feed records and receipts. These requirements are coming from the packers, we are already subject to the Safe Food Act, then why the additional paperwork.
Comment Paul-Martin:Griepentrog — October 11, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
I was also looking at meats in the store. Some were labeled, some weren’t. Some said product of US and Canada.
Comment Barbara — October 11, 2008 @ 5:40 pm
I think it is funny how they are forcing this labeling upon foods, all the while, it isn’t a requirement for foods that have been genetically modified to be labeled. I mean, how is this for origin, this strawberry is genetically modified with Fish cells. I mean, give me a break!
Comment monica — October 24, 2008 @ 1:53 am