Food label law survives Congress

WASHINGTON – Meatpackers and supermarkets failed in their attempt to add a provision into a massive year-end spending bill that would have gutted a program requiring meat and produce to have country-of-origin labels.

Retailers must tell consumers where their fruit, meat and vegetables come from by September 2006 under a law passed two years ago.

But critics, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and retail associations, have complained the program would raise food prices. They tried to insert a provision making food labels voluntary into the $388 billion spending bill Congress approved over the weekend. Supporters of the program complained that lobbyists representing supermarkets and meat packers tried to sneak the provision into the bill.

Farmers and ranchers hope the labels will sell more U.S. foodstuffs, while meatpackers and food processors say it shouldn’t matter where produce and meat come from as long as they’re safe.

The cattlemen’s association supports a voluntary program that lets meat suppliers tout that their beef is raised in the United States, said spokeswoman Tanya Augustson.

The food label law would force meatpackers to spend a lot maintaining records on every cow processed, she said.

“There’s a lot of producers that want to do (country-of-origin labeling) but don’t want to be forced,” she said.

But supporters of the law say a voluntary program won’t work.

“It’s kind of like voluntary speed limits,” said Tom Buis, spokesman for the National Farmers Union.

About 16 percent of U.S. food consumed is imported, he said.

A recent preliminary test of a cow for mad cow disease, which if confirmed would be the second in the United States, is just another example of the need for knowing where meat and produce come from, he said.