A powerful international body is overriding laws passed by Congress that tell you what country your meat comes from—and Congress is letting it happen. Action Alert!
Last week’s World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling is pushing some members of Congress to cave in to Big Food. The international body ruled that the United States’ country-of-origin labeling (COOL) law for beef and pork was discriminatory, and that Canada and Mexico are entitled to retaliatory tariffs of $782 million and $227.8 million, respectively.
COOL has been in place since 2009. It requires meat to be labeled to indicate where it was born, raised, and processed. Seafood labeling has been covered since 2005. Other laws cover other types of food such as vegetables.
The WTO’s decision comes as no surprise. As we reported previously, the WTO had already ruled that COOL unfairly discriminates against meat from Canada and Mexico, violating the WTO Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement. However, before the WTO put a price tag on COOL, the House of Representatives buckled and voted to repeal the law, likely from the fear that the tariffs would hurt large beef and pork producers in their districts. Now, key members of the Senate are indicating that they too are in support of repealing COOL. Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) said last week, “I will continue to look for all legislative opportunities to repeal COOL.” The ranking member on the committee, Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), has pledged to avoid retaliatory tariff on US products.
The COOL law, like mandatory GMO labeling, is overwhelmingly popular with the public. One poll found that 92% of Americans support COOL. Any decision to alter or remove COOL is to surrender to large industrial pork and beef producers in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
As we noted in our previous coverage, an especially troubling aspect of this issue is the precedent it sets. The WTO is not democratic, and decisions are often made by bureaucrats who meet in secret and are not screened for conflicts of interest. If the WTO can arbitrarily override our law, couldn’t it act similarly against other country-of-origin laws, and then against any future GMO labeling laws? From there it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for the WTO to be telling us what can be on other food labels—or even supplement labels.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal raises similar concerns, as we noted in recent coverage.
The bottom line is this: consumers should have access to health and safety information about their food so they can make informed choices about what to feed their families. Congress should not kowtow to the WTO.
Action Alert! Write to your senators and urge them to oppose the repeal of COOL. Please send your message immediately.
Other articles in this week’s Pulse of Natural Health
Big Food Wants to Sneak a BAN on Mandatory GMO Labeling into the Budget Bill!
GM Chicken Approved “For Medicinal Purposes”! Are Humans Next?
GMO Fraud Revealed
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Hey fellas. I’ve lived to a pretty healthy 77 years of age so far, and I must honestly tell you, as a practicing carnivore, I don’t know, nor have I ever known, from whence one piece of meat I ate in my lifetime came from. Y’all need to stop by your local fire station and have the guys put out the fire in your hair!
So because YOU don’t look at labels we should ALL lose the right to know? No thanks, how about you just continue to ignore labels and allow the rest of us to be informed.
@ FreeB: The only recommendation I rendered in my lead post was for the activist authors to get some help dowsing their hirsute combustion. The flames are increasing the earth’s CO2 content.
I hereby allow you to inform yourself at will. Thanks for seeking for my approval.
Thanks buddy! Have a happy Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanza/Eid/Festivous and a healthy 2016!
Same back atcha, and may the good Kramer bless and keep you!
I celebrate carnivores…We must be humane carnivores..
“humane carnivore” is a self-canceling phrase. should we also be humane pedophiles?
We have been given dominion over the animals, by God. It is up to us to use humane methods for their peaceful death…not the kind of slaughter that goes on much of the time my sick maniacs who love to see animals suffer…it should not be…One quick shot to the brain is humane….
Shooting all those animals, will ad to your global warming
I do not believe in global warming…that is a socialist, communist concept…Ask Al Gore.
communist concept.? what era do you live in. I have known
that global anything, is a farce it’s ment to be nothing more than
a redistribution of wealth by the Useless Nations, and a method
of distracting the masses from their real problems.
Neither do I , global warming thing is a distraction from the reality of life, it’s a money making machine for the 1%, and for the UN, a redistribution of wealth.
Buy Pork and Ham. At least you’ll know it does not come from Pakistan, India or Saudi Arabia.
Hey China bought Smithfield and pork comes from China, for some reason they send pigs to China, then back to us? Candy is another thing read small print, made China don’t buy.
Discriminatory is good , the WTO sounds much to much like the NWO, and reminds me of the UN.
The UN was probably the first big step in the effort to establish the NWO, the second is the Global Warming hoax that is an attempt to organize and a establish a WORLD ORGANIZATION TO COLLECT TAX FROM every human on earth and strengthen central control of the world, the tax on breathing is only the first tax, of many to come.
I suggest we tell the UN TO PISS OFF as well as the BS Al Gore movement to globally tax the air you breath. GW is JUNK SCIENCE FRAUD on the grandest scale in Human History IMO, if there was any truth to Anthropomorphic Global Warming Hoax, they wouldn’t have had to change the name to Climate Change, in the 70’s the alarmists were promising an Ice Age.
We as a Nation need to Restore the US Constitution, become self sufficient in Agriculture, Technology, Industry, and Energy NOW, stop trying to or pretending to police the world, bring our troops home. If we become a self sufficient Country there will no longer be a need for us to kill or be responsible for millions of deaths world wide every decade we exist. Secure the Borders, vet immigrants, end ASSET FORFEITURE, stop Federalizing and Militarizing Police Depts, repeal the Patriot Act, defund NSA TSA DHS FCC ATF and any other agency that chooses to subvert The Constitution. We need a legal fund against Oathbreakers in Congress, Un Constitutional laws, (“all laws repugnant to the Constitution are null and void” ), unjustified agencies. We should go after murders and those responsible for wrongful deaths like Janet Reno (Waco) , Eric Holder (Fast and Furious) , Hillary Clinton (Benghazi) , etc etc, we should be able to at the very least do this in civil Court as we’ve all seen past success with the OJ Murders case. No member of Congress nor the White House Cabinet are above the law, there is no such thing as Diplomatic immunity for any American on US soil.
Also , please applaud Alliance for Natural Health for allowing us to post on this moderation free site, and avoid any forum or discussion board you possibly can that uses moderation, moderation has one agenda and one only; Control of the Narrative. Just say No to any and all thought Police. Together we can restore Liberty to America.
There is no tax on breathing. Where do you even get this stuff??? If you’re referring to a carbon tax, I don’t believe we have that either, nor do I support one. Excess carbon in the atmosphere must be returned to the soil where it belongs, through regenerative agriculture aka agro-ecological farming. Climate change is not a hoax, although many of the “solutions” posed are false solutions that should be stopped. If you want us to not be responsible for “millions of deaths worldwide”, then I suggest you consider that climate change is leading to sea level rise, which is leading to entire small island nations on a pathway to being underwater within a few short years, not to mention the millions of other people living in cities barely above current sea levels. I do agree that we should return to being self-sufficient and stop wreaking havoc on the rest of the world via military force though. I believe war is a crime.
The new term of Climate Change over Global Warming was changed because Al Gore’s Junk Science failed the smell test, CO2 is not a pollutant no matter how hard they try to sell it as such. If there was any truth at all that Humans have been controlling Earths Climate since the 1800’s (which is absolute bs) and is due to Carbon Dioxide emissions , the obvious solution is to plant trees, not create a NWO Global Taxation scheme. Cherry picked, skewed and omitted data are the tools of the Global Warming alarmists and fraudsters that are being exposed daily. Co2 will never be a pollutant, regardless of how the revisionist Globalists attempt to reclassify it. Globalists are not and never will be looking for a solution to any of Earths problems, they will always seek greater control and funding to further their agenda.
I don’t eat meat but I’m a Pescatarian (fish eating vegetarian) but please support the effort to label the origin of anything you might eat or purchase, we need to know.
And please say not to the TPP or, support any efforts you can to repeal it. Obama belongs in Prison , along with anyone that desires and contributes to SELLING OUT OUR SOVEREIGNTY.
New studies by UTA-Clear have found water, air, and soil pollution near fracking sites in the Eagle Ford Shale of TX. There is also some indication of soil contamination. If future studies find toxins in vegetation near fracking sites, then might we be concerned about contaminated Texas beef, given that there are over 20,000 fracking sites in the Barnett Shale alone?
Oh, hey, I know; don’t eat meat and you won’t have to worry about where it comes from. (It comes from murdered animals, and that’s all that matters). You will be saving animals, the environment, and your health. No brainer, yeah?
I don’t want to assume, but since your username is “tofuchik” I’m led to believe you eat tofu. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Most tofu is made with GE soybeans, which do no good for animals, the environment, or your health. Even if it’s organic soybeans, tofu is made from unfermented soybeans. Soy should only be consumed if it’s fermented. All traditional soy products like miso and soy sauce are fermented (or traditionally were fermented) and enjoyed as a condiment, not as a main protein source. Not a single human culture has ever been vegan. Some people do better on largely plant based diets than others, and some people get really sick when they try vegetarianism or veganism. All vegans must take B12 supplements because B12 can only be found in animal products. It’s unfortunate, but something living must die in order for you to eat. If not an animal, than a plant. In fact, more plants usually have to die than animals. Unless you want to only eat fruit, in which case your health may decline before long. Take care of the animals and plants (and fungi in the case of mushrooms) well or forage from the wild.
More plants die feeding them to animals that are turned into meat than if we ate plants directly and exclusively. If people get sick eating vegetarian it is because they are consuming bovine mammary secretions that are designed to grow a 400lb baby cow. If someone gets sick eating vegan it is because they are not eating a whole foods diet with greens, grains, legumes and nuts. Soy has been maligned primarily by the Weston-Price Foundation that is pro-dairy. B-12 is found in dirt, and before humans started washing vegetables it was a reliable source of B12, and that is where animals get theirs. So really, if you are arguing that taking a supplement is not better in every way than taking someone else’s life, you are really grasping for straws.
Soy has been “maligned” for good reason……it is simply not a healthy food. B12 from any source besides animal products is simply not absorbed well by the body. Biologically speaking, humans are omnivores, not grazing animals like cattle and not carnivores either. Grazing animals rejuvenate soil, and can even reverse desertification. I agree about one thing, we should NOT be feeding animals grains and antibiotics, and we should all eat less meat than we do. Plants are sentient life that feels pain, reacts to threats, grows towards sunlight and away from dangers. So as Dust above mentioned, something must die for us to live, it is simply the way nature works and has always worked.
Plants are alive, but are not sentient and I am not going to waste time explaining when that information is readily available. Just because humans have eaten meat does not mean that they should. Physiologically humans are designed to eat plants. Soy is a great source of protein, but humans don’t need nearly the amount of protein they think and consume. The only way the planet will survive is for humans to go vegan. Animal agriculture is the number one cause of climate change, and is resource intensive. Everything I’ve said hear is researchable, hence the brevity.
(And in fact I eat very little tofu/soy, for no particular reason, and have survived quite well on plants for 45 years)
the Sun is the #i cause of climate change, 95% of the earths air is saturated with water vapour, and everyone is making a fuss over the other 5%. And some carnivores, eat plants when they’er sick. hens eat grains we feed them, but watch them go after meat.
Go milk a cow….please…then soak your head in it..
That’s healthier than the pasteurized stuff, they pass of as milk.
Go learn how to argue.
Try eating organic foods, that have a water supply that is contaminated with peoples unused drug flushed down the drain and dosed with toxins like antiseptic dish soaps and house hold cleaners, not to mention Fluoride who most people think is a healthy medication in the water supply, no mater who or how you eat, your going to be affected by the environment and other factor that are out of our control.
If one eats soy it must be organic. Now try to find any that is…
God tells us in the Biblbe exactly what types of meat are meant to be eaten by us…Vegans are terribly poorly nourished…Ask a Naturopath.
God also allows free will it seems, so that kind of negates that aspect. and check out the origins of the man written bible, it’s full of repeating stories, and a vengeful God, and dates back to 290 to 300 ad.
Our God is big enough to get every word in his Bible written down just as it pleases him…It you had the Holy Spirit inside of you, you would be able to understand the Bible…otherwise it is closed to all but believers…
I find it strange that there are a lot of blind faith believers, who suffer at the hand of your god, I mean that your god, is responsible for typhoons and hurricanes, earth quakes and all things that others like me see as natural events, but since your god is responsible for everything, then he causes a lot of misery all over this world.
Ever heard of the devil????? You can see him personally in the eyes of Obama…
I don’t see it in Obama’s eye’s , but I think you have it in your heart and mind.
I can see it in your heart, what ever happened to, ” judge not, lest ye be judged sayeth the Lord”, don’t you just hate it, when it gets thrown back at you.
We are to judge lest we be deceived…I have the gift of Dicerning of Spirits. It is not me judging, it is God in me…We are warned to judge rightly for However we judge we will be judged….a little different that your one scripture take.
Your eyes must be white, have a look into any of the bush eyes, talk about the evil in the heart of men.
You cannot knock what you have not tried…If God does call you to receive him, I hope you will answer the call…He chooses us, not the other way around…
You can pick and choose whatever suites you from the fairytale book known as the bible, but I recall that things growing from plants were meant to be eaten.
And perhaps you’d like to check in with Mr. Universe about how poorly nourished he is, or the marathon runners, etc,
Mad cow disease infected Pork? Stand up again for America are we the dump spot for foreign countries??!!
I’m not a fan of the WTO. If people just bought and sold meat locally, we wouldn’t have this problem. Mexican meat producers can sell their meat in local communities. Canadian meat producers can sell their meat in local communities. And American meat producers can sell their meat in local communities. Why fight to ship it elsewhere? But alas, until we return to the small independent farmer method, this is unlikely. By the way, I find it hard to believe that a label stating meat came from another country really harmed Mexico and Canada, especially Canada. So many drugs are allowed in conventional American meat (not to mention the disgusting processing facilities) that I’m sure plenty of people would rather buy meat labeled Canadian or Mexican!!
And all Walmart’s ginger is totally China grown and China is totally heavy metal…The public have no idea what they eat and that is why we are so unhealthy.
Grass fed organic meat is the only way to go. It’s expensive, but at least it’s not poisoned with foul water and gmo corn feed and the cattle are raised like they’re supposed to be. We’re screwed in this country when it comes to our food because of the whoring in WDC by politicians allowing crazy things to be done to our food.
It’s not that much more expensive, it has more nourishment, means you need less. and I can get it locally and it costs less when it’s bought in bulk. just need a freezer.
My health demands that I know where my meat and all my food comes from…We grow great tomatoes here but often in Walmart all the tomatoes are from Mexico. I choose not to buy Mexican foods..The avocados in Costco were Mexican…Lots more grocery trips are needed to get home grown foods…grown in America only…Clinton began all the foreign foods here…I resent that and O the traitor doubles down…Do not vote for Ms Clinton and put O in prison…Keep America safe in every way.
Even if you got your wish list done, that only the surface of it, how about getting the FDA and other government department to stop dipping their greedy hands into the money pits of corporations of the world, who place mission statements, that put profits ahead of humanity.
Just think how a shark could get easy food, if it were to mutate to twice it’s normal size and become the new terrorist of the seas. or snakes and other animals were to become some what over size, we’ed have to go hunting with bazookas. or fishing from big ships with depth charges.