Greedy Trial Lawyer
The Meat Lobby Chops Off Your Right To Know
Category: Gaming The System
You have an excellent chance of knowing where the fish you are about to eat spent its last night in the sea. But, where your hamburger or lettuce comes from - that is another story. According to the New York Times the federal food labeling law, passed in 2002, is not being followed.
Labels Lack Food's Origin Despite Law
In every American supermarket, labels tell shoppers where their seafood came from. But there are no such labels for meat, produce or nuts.Behind the contradiction is a lesson in political power in Washington, where lobbyists and members of Congress have managed to hold off the enforcement of a five-year-old law that required country-of-origin labeling on meat and produce as well as fish.
Now, with Democrats in control of Congress and mounting questions about the safety of food imported from China, proponents of the labeling law say they believe that they finally have momentum on their side.
After all, they say, at a time when consumers are ever more concerned about where their food is coming from, why not just tell them on the package?
"No. 1, there's a basic consumer right to know," said Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, an advocacy group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine and supports the labeling law. "People are more and more concerned about the food they eat."
Should it take 5 years to type out the labels? Has Brownie been transferred from FEMA to the USDA?
...the labeling law has formidable foes, including the meat lobby, which so far has outmaneuvered its opponents on Capitol Hill. In the years since the labeling law was enacted as part of the 2002 Farm Bill, its opponents have successfully blocked all but seafood labeling from taking effect.
We need the meat lobby to take on Congressional earmarks. These guys know how to swing a cleaver.
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