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House votes to repeal country-of-origin meat labeling law

Anomalism

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It's kind of unnerving that they don't want us to know where our meat came from.

House votes to repeal country-of-origin meat labeling law

A House committee has voted to get rid of labels on packages of meat that say where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered. The House Agriculture Committee voted 38-6 to repeal a "country-of-origin" labeling law for meat on Wednesday — just two days after the World Trade Organization ruled against parts of it. The labels 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 WTO ruled Monday that the U.S. labels put Canadian and Mexican livestock at a disadvantage, rejecting a U.S. appeal after a similar WTO decision last year. The Obama administration had already revised the labels once to try to comply with previous WTO rulings. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has said it is out of the administration's hands and has called on Congress to change the law to avoid retaliation — such as extra tariffs — from the two neighbor countries.

The law was initially written at the behest of northern U.S. ranchers who compete with the Canadian cattle industry. It also was backed by some consumer advocates who say it helps shoppers know where their food comes from. Those supporters have called on the U.S. government to negotiate with Canada and Mexico to find labels acceptable to all countries. But many in the U.S. meat industry — including meat processors who buy animals from abroad — have called for a repeal of the law, which they have fought for years. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway, R-Texas, has long backed the meat industry's call for repeal. Along with several of his colleagues, he introduced the legislation to repeal the labeling requirements hours after the WTO decision. All but six of the committee's Democrats supported the bill, which Conaway said was a "targeted" response to the WTO decision. "We cannot sit back and let American businesses be held hostage to the desires of a small minority who refuse to acknowledge that the battle is lost," Conaway said.
 
Now the WTO is controlling our laws concerning food safety and disclosure? This is what the WTO protesters warned us about and the kind of thing the TPP will expand.

I wonder if they are preparing us for Chinese meat on the market?

In addition to food safety, people may want to boycott products from some nations due to insufficient animal treatment laws, human rights issues or political reasons. The WTO seems interested in preventing that practice.
 
Europe's consumers don't want your hormone-riddled antibiotic-filled meat products either. One of many reasons why we're fighting the TTIP treaty being signed.

Sign up to say NO to TTIP! | War on Want

ps We have much stricter regulation of food generally. Individual packs of beef can be traced from the supermarket back to the farm the animal it came from was born on.
 
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Europe's consumers don't want your hormone-riddled antibiotic-filled meat products either. One of many reasons why we're fighting the TTIP treaty being signed.

Sign up to say NO to TTIP! | War on Want

ps We have much stricter regulation of food generally. Individual packs of beef can be traced from the supermarket back to the farm the animal it came from was born on.

That's cool, we should all want that. See, this is the thing about "free trade" and "unfettered capitalism" that's troubling. Greed trumps health and safety. Seems apropos that conservatives subscribe to a world without restrictions, regulations and fences.
 
I'm sure the free market will sort that out.
 
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