"On May 13, 2002, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, more commonly known as the 2002 Farm Bill, became law. One of its many provisions requires country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef, lamb, pork, fish, perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts. On January 27, 2004, Public Law 108-199 delayed implementation of mandatory COOL for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish until September 30, 2006. On November 10, 2005, Public Law 109-97 delayed implementation of mandatory COOL for all covered commodities except wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish until September 30, 2008. As described in the legislation, program implementation is the responsibility of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The recently enacted Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill) expands the list of covered commodities to include chicken, goat meat, ginseng, pecans and macadamia nuts."

 

Which means, as of today (October 1), the country-of-origin labels should be on most of your food. This didn't come about because of the Chinese milk, the California spinach or the Mexican peppers, not to mention the terrorizing tomatoes!, but it sure is getting a lot of press because of it:

 

http://health.yahoo.com/news/ap/med_healthbeat_food_labels.html

 

It's not just about safety--it's also about supply chain track and trace, consumer buying empowerment, buying local, and contingencies (recall, expiration, etc.):

 

"Those who want to buy local — or who prefer, say, Chilean grapes and New Zealand lamb — can more easily exercise their purchasing power. Those worried about lax safety regulations in certain countries can avoid those imports. And the next time tomatoes are suspected of food poisoning, consumers may be able to tell investigators they bought only ones grown in a certain region, speeding the probe."

 

The key is that the printing on the product is used to convey valuable information. Watch for some cheating going on.  If I'm a counterfeiter the first thing I'm going to manipulate is the COOL information.

 

We'll return to "an evolving analogy" next blog posting.

 

-Steve