COOL: Ag Secretary Admits Changes Needed, Rule Set To Go Into Effect Sept. 30

(Cattle Network)

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today joined a bipartisan group of 30 Senators in urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to make modifications to its interim final rule for implementing Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). COOL is slated to go into effect September 30. Harkin is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, the Committee that ushered the new farm bill into law.

“People want to know where their food comes from,” said Harkin. “Yet, USDA appears to be taking an overly broad approach to implementing this program, allowing certain food products to not be labeled as required by the farm bill. USDA’s rule also allows packers to just label all U.S. products jointly with other countries, limiting consumer choice. People are expecting to find meat labeled as exclusively U.S. product, not just hidden with everything else.

“I am encouraged by statements made by Agriculture Secretary Schafer that this implementation needed additional work, but with such a short amount of time left before this rule goes into effect, I am hopeful USDA will act quickly to implement these changes.” Find out more here.