Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has vowed to
ensure that country of origin labeling "is implemented as
Congress intended," according to a position paper on the
Kerry-Edwards 2004 Campaign Web site.
The statement reads, "George Bush has stopped this important
program from being implemented as a favor to the big meat
industry."
Major industry associations, including the American Meat
Institute, have long opposed mandatory COOL.
"Mandatory country of origin labeling is nothing more than
a massive, unfunded federal dictate that will not only fail
to give the public pertinent information about products
they wish to consume, but will also hit American consumers
in the pocketbook every time they try to put a meal on the
table," noted AMI President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle in
a recent guest column in the Billings Gazette .
Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported Kerry's support
for a ban on meatpacker ownership of cattle and hog operations. |
