With the passage of the 2002 Farm Bill and its provision requiring mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) for produce, many within the industry believed that country of origin labeling, which is broadly represented in today's produce aisles at retail stores, would involve simple compliance with the new law. Unfortunately, the law and related regulations proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not allow such a simple outcome, causing great concern among many in the produce industry about the regulatory burden and increased cost necessary to meet the stated requirements. In 2004, legislation passed that would delay the implementation of country of origin law for meat and produce until September 30, 2006. United Fresh supported that delay as a way to help the produce industry develop a legislative proposal to amend the current law and ensure a labeling program that achieves the goal of country of origin labeling without the cost or regulatory burden of the current law.
 
Current Status
As part of the FY2006 Agriculture Appropriations law, Congress agreed to delay enforcement of the current mandatory country of origin labeling law an additional two years, to September 30, 2008. United Fresh supported the extension in order to allow greater time to pursue an industry-sponsored permanent legislative solution. This provision was hotly contested and was one of the last issues on the table for consideration.  This was an important victory in assuring that the costly rules of the mandatory law would not go into effect saving the industry millions in regulatory cost.  
 
As part of the 2007 Farm Bill being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate this year, the produce, meat and retail industries have negotiated important improvements to reduce the regulatory burden and cost of the country of origin law now on the books. With mandatory COOL the following changes will be included in the Farm Bill:

 

Penalties for mistakes in labeling at point of purchase will be significantly reduced, including a “good faith” standard that reduces the liability for retailers unless shown to be disregarding or willfully violating the law.  This helps ease the burden on retailers, so long as they are working to comply with the law.  However, produce suppliers must provide country of origin information to retailers, and the truthfulness of that declaration is still subject to PACA law.

These changes are not final and effective until the 2007 Farm Bill is passed by Congress and signed by the President. Many interest groups, including United Fresh, hope passage is soon. These chances developed as a result of a compromised agreement made by consumer groups, National Farmers Union and the produce industry. All parties involved in the compromise believe these agreements are likely to hold through the final Farm Bill process. The next step will be to focus on the regulatory process as USDA develops the rules to implement COOL in a way that provides useful information to consumers with minimal cost and negative impact on the total produce supply chain.  In the meantime, United Fresh is urging its members to encourage their Congressional leaders to pass the farm bill legislation this year so that the rules going into effect in September 2008 are reasonable and cost-effective for the industry.

 

Action
United Fresh urges Members of Congress to support the COOL provisions included in the House-passed version (H.R. 2419) and Senate-drafted version (S. 2302) of the 2007 Farm Bill, and support passage of the final bill this year. TAKE ACTION NOW!

 

TAKE ACTION NOW!   Tell your legislators the produce industry needs to pass the 2007 Farm Bill!