WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate appropriations committee has defeated a Democratic attempt to speed up country-of-origin labelling of beef, pork and mutton sold in U.S. grocery stores.
By law, the labels will be mandatory after Sept. 30, 2006. North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan lost on a tie vote, 14-14, when he proposed making the starting date Jan. 1 of next year.
Utah Republican Robert Bennett said if Congress ordered a starting date less than four months away, it would “create a perfect bureaucratic storm” by catching food manufacturers and regulators unprepared.
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Mandatory labelling, which also applies to seafood, fruit, vegetables and peanuts, faces an uncertain future. The House of Representatives has passed a bill to convert to voluntary labelling.
Farm activists, the two largest U.S. farm groups and consumer groups support labelling as part of the customer’s right to know and a way to distinguish U.S.-grown foods from competitors.
“American consumers want this, they want this by a large majority,” Dorgan said.
But food makers, grocers and national groups speaking for cattle and hog farmers say labelling will be costly and require a mountain of paperwork for spotty coverage. The labelling law exempts poultry and does not apply to food in restaurants.
The Senate has been a stronghold of support for mandatory labelling and a related proposal, popular among ranchers in the northern Plains, to ban meat packers from raising livestock for slaughter.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry supports both ideas.
