Congratulations! With the help of all our supporters, we have defeated the section 123 provision that would have taken away the right for state and local governments to make stronger food safety laws than the federal government! We couldn't have done it without you! Now help us win this next fight! Tell the House Agriculture Committee to take Competition Seriously.
This week, after months of working behind the scenes, the full House Agriculture committee will consider their version of the Farm Bill. There are many issues on the table, but two that they especially need to hear about right now are:
1) Keeping COOL - Consumers have been waiting for country-of-origin labeling since the 2002 farm bill because the meat and grocery industries have lobbied Congress to repeatedly delay the date when it would go into effect. Right now, the rule goes into effect in September 2008 for meat and produce (seafood has been labeled with its country of origin since 2005.) But the meat, food processing, and grocery industries aren't done trying to kill COOL.
They are pushing amendments to the Farm Bill that would weaken COOL by exempting ground beef from the labeling requirement and allowing animals born in another country, but slaughtered in the United States, to get a "product of the U.S." seal. We need to let the Agriculture Committee know that consumers want accurate country-of-origin labeling on ALL meat and vegetable products, and that exempting ground beef and weakening the standard for what's eligible for the "product of the U.S." seal are unacceptable.
2) Fairness for Contract Farmers - With the rapid rise of intensive confinement (also known as "vertically integrated") methods of animal production, farmers are increasingly raising animals under contract with large meat companies. This is most common in the poultry industry, but has spread into hog production and is starting to appear in the cattle industry. In many cases, the farmer never actually owns the animals, but goes into debt to build new facilities necessary to raise animals owned by a meat company.
Under these arrangements, farmers are given take-it-or-leave-it, non-negotiable contracts. One of the many problems with these contracts is the use of mandatory arbitration clauses that force farmers to sign away their right to a jury trial and accept a dispute resolution method (binding arbitration) that is too costly for most of them to pursue.
The House version of the farm bill includes a measure that prohibits meat companies from forcing farmers into arbitration. The meat industry is pressuring Congress to get rid of this measure.
Tell the Agriculture Committee to keep the arbitration measure in the farm bill! - click here to tell Congress to increase competition in the livestock industry by not weakening COOL and keeping the ban on mandatory arbitration! - For more info on COOL click here ~ For more on the Farm Bill click here ~ For more on competition provisions in the Farm Bill click here - Thank you! from your friends @ http://www.fwwatch.org/
