August 30, 2020
Deadline: September 14, 2020 is the last day for comments on the Federal Trade Commissions rule on product of USA or made in USA label for beef.
We need to get this important deadline out to our membership. In July of 2020 the Federal Trade Commission issued a challenge to the USDA’s “Product of U.S.A.” label. As it stands now any beef that is processed in any way in the U.S.A. including imported beef that may only be repackaged into smaller packages can be and is labeled Product of the U.S.A. This is very deceiving. Most of consumers purchasing beef at the stores have no idea that it may not actually all be from the U.S.A.
Case in point:
While in a Wal-Mart in Great Falls this spring during the height of the beef shortage on the shelves, I talked with the assistant manager of the meat department. I asked her if she knew where the beef sold in the store came from. She said it all comes from the U.S. because Wal-Mart only bought meat labeled “Product of the U.S.A.”. I told her that the product they were receiving could be from any where in the world but had passed through an American processing facility.
The FTC is considering the current USDA label as fraudulent and would like comments on how the label should be re-written. Anyone wishing to comment needs to go to www.regulations.gov and type in the search box made in USA labeling rule. Click on the box on the right that says comments or go to https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=FTC-2020-0056-0001
Suggestion: Only Real Beef Born, Raised, Fed and Processed in the U.S.A. should be labeled as a ‘Product of the U.S.A.’ or ‘Made in the U.S.A.’ and remember the deadline is SOON! September 14, 2020.
This may be better in the long run than a Mandatory Country of Origin Label because the World Trade Organization may not be able to consider it an ‘unfair trade practice’.
On a side note, according to Wikipedia, the Federal Trade Commission was the bureau that had helped write and initiate the Packers & Stockyards Act in 1921.