GOP Looking to Repeal Food Labeling Law

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elling consumers where their meat, fruit and vegetables came from seemed such a good idea to U.S. ranchers and farmers in competition with imports that Congress two years ago ordered the food industry to do it. But meatpackers and food processors fought the law from the start, and newly emboldened Republicans now plan to repeal it before Thanksgiving.

As part of the 2002 farm bill, country-of-origin labeling was supposed to have gone into effect this fall. Congress last year postponed it until 2006. Now, House Republicans are trying to wipe it off the books as part of a spending bill they plan to finish this month.

House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he expected the Senate to agree to repealing the measure, whose main champion two years ago was Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

"I can't find any real opposition to doing exactly what we want to do here," Blunt said.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/10208019.htm

[Eurobabe]

1. figures, next thing you know they'll ban organic foods.

can I move yet?

[GetTheRightVote]

14. Well, we could boycott companies who do not use labels

That way at least they do not profit from our money as they poison us with their products. Hummmmmmmmm..........

[CAcyclist]

2. Just When Local Food Gained Public Interest

That'll make me *only * buy food from the farmers market,then - at least of what I can get there

[quiet.american]

3. Let's just get it out of the way....

GOP Looking to Repeal All Things Good and Decent

http://www.repeal-all-things-good-and-decent.com
(not a real link) :)

[LauraT28]

4. SAD..Just SAD..Can you all see who they serve? certainly not us.

They ALL serve their corporate masters...Not the people whom they are are supposed to serve..This country is not the Republic that was founded....Nothing short of a revolution can change it back. I'm ready.

[Cha]

5. It's so wonderful to live in a Country that

has been hijacked by ceritfiable IDIOTS!

Their supporters deserve every HELL they lead them into.

[_testify_]

8. the problem is they're leading us along with 'em

[Cha]

10. I see your point but not always...

This is one area where a lot of People are going to be pissed.

I work and shop at a Natural Foods Co-op and the food there will always be labeled.

So many people are aware of hidden food alergies(repukes, too).

[LiberalAndProud]

6. Meat packers and food processors oppose the labeling.

Country of origin / State Brand labeling has been very effective in supporting the price of USA beef, IMHO.

[achtung_circus]

16. What has been very effective in holding meat prices high

is the closing of the Canadian border in defiance of the scientific evidence. What supports high meat prices is the US Commerce Dept imposing a 14% duty on Canadian hogs entering the American market even though they agree there is no damage caused to American industry by those imports..

Country of origin labeling makes no sense due to the integrated nature of the North American food industry. And I just don't mean ADM and Cargill. Many American farmers, family farms, rely on purchasing Canadian hogs, raising them to market weight and selling them. They are paying part of the price. The consumer is paying it ALL in the final analysis.

COOL was always a pork barrel. It has no connection to food safety.

If a calf is born in the US, fed to market weight in Alberta and then slaughtered in Idaho, what is it's country of origin. According to the COOL rules it's Canadian.

The consumer pays to support the most highly subsidized farmer in this hemisphere, then pays again at the check out counter.

If you want something to get validly irate about, the USDA had proposed that "organic" be defined by the producer. IE if I call it organic, then it is. There are many organic certification groups and organic farmers that managed to put a stop to that piece of nonsense.

[Catchawave]

7. This is why I support Farm Aid...

They've already started their campaign:

http://www.farmaid.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6026

[AlCzervik]

9. To quote Jon Stewart regarding Zell Miller

but applicable here: "Building a bridge back to the 18th century"

[Cha]

11. Yes, they are and they're going to get

bitten by some very NASTY "18th century" bugs!

[Malva Zebrina]

12. I may not live to see it

but if this keeps up, I sense a return to communes or a community of people dedicated to doing their own thing and helping each other survive by rejecting the rule of corporations over their lives. People who want to grow their own food, are not shackled to consumerism as a god, and want to return to the simple life AMAP without shackling themself to crazy materialistic, corporate control over their lives.

I figure, at my age, I am entitled to fantasize a little.

[baldguy]

13. Stop complaining! That mercury & radiation is GOOD for you!

And they've got to be able to unload that gen-mod meat beast steak SOMEWHERE.

[aquart]

15. I love their belief that rich people can't be poisoned.

I guess because they don't eat any of that cheap, mass-produced food.