Recently, Minnesota Senator Al Franken introduced a bill which would provide for a dairy Country of Origin Labeling program. Minnesota Farmers Union President Doug Peterson says of the bill:
“It’s a pretty simple, straight-forward bill; it says that if you’re going to have diary products sold in this country, they should be labeled the country they’re from. So, if it’s milk from water buffaloes in India that makes a specialty cheese, and you want to buy that as a consumer, then that’s exactly what the label should say “From India.” If it’s MPC’s or Milk Protein Concentrates that are coming from the European Union or Australia, or even New Zealand, we think that’s what consumers should see, so that they can make an informed choice on where their food comes from.”
Peterson says American dairy products don't take a backseat to anyone else in the world:
“It’s, I think, not only with the meats and things like that, the quality of the dairy in this country and the standards that we have for Grade A dairy and all that kind of works into a safe, healthy product and when it’s coming from some other place, and frankly, and I don’t want sound mean or crass about this, but frankly some of those countries don’t have the same standards that we do in this country, and they get to import into this country through trade agreements. And we’ve got to have trade agreements. And it comes in, and it’s not labeled, and only 1% of all of the food that is imported into this country gets inspected.”
There is some question as to if such a bill would be better placed in the next Farm Bill:
“There’s going to be some games played out there, but that 2012 Farm Bill is a unique opportunity to high light the dairy so it sometimes it might not be where the bill is going, but the highlight of the emphasis that you put on the diary industry in this country. in other words, dairy farmers in this country, in the last ten years; and this comes straight from Chairman Lucas of the House Ag Committee, dairy farmers have not had a profitable year in this country in ten years. Eight out of ten years down.”
Peterson says - there is a bigger market out there domestically for dairy farmers:
“You know, it’s kind of interesting, the United States, on products, we consume more diary products than we produce. So, if you’re a free marketer, supply and demand, dairy should be just wonderful. But, it’s not. And some of this is aimed at getting at those imports. So, if I’m a consumer, and I’d like to support US farmers or local farmers, I’d like to know what that label says, and just it comes back to arming me with the information I need to make a choice.”
|