House Panel Denies USDA Label Money

Published on: June 21, 2003

A House panel is putting a halt on a new program that would require meatpackers and retailers to label their programs by country of origin. Acknowledging the food industry's concerns that the labels could be costly and cumbersome, the House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee voted Tuesday to deny funding for the Agriculture Department to carry out the program. The decision was made on a unanimous voice vote.

President Bush signed the labeling program into law last year as part of a $190 billion farm bill. The Agriculture Department estimates it would cost $1.9 billion to keep careful records on where the animals were born, raised and slaughtered.

Defending the labeling requirement, Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., said the labels could have helped U.S. and Canadian officials quickly search for cattle linked to a cow infected with mad cow disease in Canada. Last month, Canada found that an animal slaughtered in January was sick with mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Officials spent days inspecting the herd the cow came from to ensure that none of the other animals had the brain-wasting disease. The case revealed that the United States, which trades meat and cattle extensively with Canada, has no system in place that would allow investigators to trace meat quickly from the slaughterhouse to the farm.

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