New labeling laws anger meat industry
Customers will know what country their beef and pork came from and how it was treated along the way, but producers fear an international backlash.
By Jason Notte 2 hours ago
Knowing where your food is coming from and how it was treated before it got to your table has been a sticking point for local and organic food proponents alike. So, why is a new U.S. law requiring sourcing information for meat products causing so much anger?
Maybe it has something to do with the folks who are most angry. After the U.S. Department of Agriculture finalized a rule calling for mandatory labels indicating a meat's country of origin and production steps, meat industry organizations including the American Meat Institute and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association called it "extremely disappointing and “short-sighted."
While the new rule was created to bring the U.S. into compliance with World Trade Organization labeling standards, industry groups argue that it will increase distrust of imported meat products and hurt U.S. producers through "retaliatory tariffs or other authorized trade sanctions." As AgriNews notes, Canada and Mexico have already challenged the law, but were rebuffed by the WTO.
But, gee, why would Americans distrust imported meats? It's not as if Europe just went through some wide-ranging scandal where meat labeled as ground beef contained horse and was shipped out to Nestlé (NSRGY), Yum Brands' (YUM) Taco Bell, Ikea and elsewhere. It's not as if a whole bunch of beef in South Africa turned out to bepork, goat, water buffalo and donkey meat.
It's not as if the rivers of China, home of meat producer Smithfield Farms' (SFD) potential new owners, occasionally teem with dead pig carcasses.
But that's not the meat industry's concern, as an American Meat Industry spokesman told AgriNews when he insisted that no public health or welfare issues were attached to the rule. The industry is worried about the 12% of all U.S. pork that's sold to China and the gravy train that comes streaming back over the Pacific as a result.
They're worried that the law's effective date of May 23, despite a six-month period for industry education and outreach, won't give meat producers enough time to burn through label inventory or come into compliance. They're worried that the rule "ignores the realities of the marketplace and the supply chain."
It's those realities -- including the commingling of cuts of different animals -- that the new rules are trying to bring to light. That the meat industry's response includes comments such as "Please do not change the labeling requirements -- I need my job," says far more about what's going on behind the scenes than it does about the new law addressing it.
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