The Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015
The House of Representatives has voted to repeal Country of
Origin labeling (COOL) for beef, pork, and chicken.
What is COOL? Country Of Origin Labeling (COOL) (or mCOOL
[m for mandatory]) is a requirement signed into American law under Title X of
the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (known as the 2002 Farm
Bill, codified at 7 U.S.C. § 1638a) It required all food to be labeled as to what country it originated from.
Texas Republican Rep. Michael Conaway’s Country of Origin
Labeling Amendments Act of 2015 passed late in the evening under the cover of Darkness on June 10th of this year by a 300-131 vote.
Conaway introduced the bill on May 18 — the same day the
World Trade Organization rejected a U.S. appeal of its decision that COOL
unfairly discriminates against meat imports and gives the advantage to domestic
meat products.
COOL, which went into effect for meat in 2013, require that
packaging indicate the country, or countries, where animals were born, raised
and slaughtered.
Supporters of repeal don’t want the U.S. subjected to the
$3.6 billion in potential retaliatory tariffs sought by Canada and Mexico. They
also argue that the rule has already burdened the U.S. meat industry.
“The program has not worked, and it is time to put this
failed experiment behind us once and for all,” Conaway said during the floor
debate.
He and Reps. Dan Benishek (R-MI), Jim Costa (D-CA), David
Rouzer (R-NC), David Scott (D-GA) and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) asserted that COOL
has no impact on food safety.
“Mandatory food labeling is not about food safety,” Benishek
said. “No matter where our food comes from, regulations remain in place to
ensure safety and traceability regardless of origin.
The Dark Act
There are two names for H.R.
1599, the controversial
The first is its official name: The Safe and Accurate
Food Labeling Act of 2015. The second is the nickname given by its opponents for what it really is:
Deny Americans the Right to Know (DARK) Act.
For these reasons and more, two economists recently
called GMOs “perhaps the greatest case of human hubris ever” in a New
York Times editorial, saying agriculture industry has created a system “too big
to fail,” much like the banking industry in 2008.
Meanwhile, GMO supporters argue that the world is facing a
global hunger crisis, and foods genetically modified to have more nutrients
could be potential lifesavers.
But H.R. 1599 is not about the existence of GMOs, which are
entrenched in American agriculture (GMO crops account for around
90 percent of corn and soy grown in the country). It’s about whether
the genetically modified foods you buy should be labeled as such. And because independent poll after poll shows
that the majority of Americans support GMO labeling, the bill’s opponents see
the bill as nothing more than the agrochemical industry flexing its lobbying
muscles.
The Dark Act passed through the Congressional House on Friday where it heads for the U.S. Senate and then to Obama to sign for passage.
