Amid revelations Chinese beef has been processed in poor hygienic conditions, South Korean lawmakers are seeking legislation to strengthen the consumers´ right to know by expanding the place-of-origin requirement on imported beef.

South Korea bans raw beef from China, where livestock diseases have frequently erupted, such as the latest case of foot-and-mouth disease reported in northeastern Gansu Province in January.… Read the rest

COOL Rule Changes May Be Written Into Law

Just before the House Agriculture Committee finished marking up the 2007 farm bill on July 19, Agriculture Chairman Peterson called his committee into executive session to say that the meat industry had agreed to resolve one of the longest-running disputes in American agriculture: implementation of the 2002 law requiring country-of-origin labeling for red meat (COOL) at the final point of retail sale.… Read the rest

In a recent letter to Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., from the American Meat Institute (AMI), AMI makes several decisively false claims about country-of-origin labeling, a law established in the 2002 Farm Bill that has yet to be implemented because of political pressure by multinational packers, processors and retailers. R-CALF USA, in turn, sent a letter to DeLauro and Kohl to counter AMI’s false claims.… Read the rest