In August, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released their plan for mandatory country-of-origin labeling of meat, produce, and nuts.  After years of delay caused by the meat, food processing and grocery industries, country-of-origin labeling (COOL) goes into effect September 30, 2008.

Thanks to the 2008 Farm Bill, the USDA rules establish strong standards for which meat products can be called ‘Product of the U.S.’, but the rules also contain a massive loophole that will allow large quantities of food to go without labeling.  Because USDA established a very broad definition for ‘processed’ foods that are exempt from COOL, most frozen vegetables, pork products and nuts will not have to be labeled. USDA is accepting comments on COOL until the end of September.  Tell them to close the loopholes for ‘processed’ foods!

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