Country of Origin Labels - COOL.

"COOL" Information - Country of Origin Labels

by Julie Backenkeller for Rock Environmental Network, Inc.

Janesville Gazette, Sunday, January 23, 2011

I admit it. I am an environmental information junkie. It takes me hours to get through the grocery store because I have become a professional label reader. Besides unnatural additives, unfamiliar ingredients and artificial sweeteners, I started looking for the "Country of Origin" label (COOL), which is listed on many packages.

In September of 2008, the US Dept of Agriculture (USDA) updated their requirement for retailers to display the Country-of Origin on labels for a wide variety of foods. Included in the list are beef, veal, lamb, chicken, pork, goat, wild and farm raised fish and shellfish, fresh & frozen fruits and vegetables, nuts, and ginseng. Items not included in the Country-of-Origin labeling are processed foods like spaghetti sauce or meatballs, or products that mix several items or ingredients into one package. The rule also does not apply to restaurants.

Several months ago, I read an article about Whole Foods brand frozen vegetables. Listed on the label of their "365 Organic vegetables", was a USDA Organic stamp, and right under that "Product of China". This is where I could go into the logic of buying your organic vegetables locally, from the farmer's market or even your own back yard, but frozen has always been the better option over cans. The last news we read about canned food, was that 98% of can's are lined with Bisphenol A, a chemical that causes a whole bunch of health issues, and is banned in both Europe and Canada. The concern with purchasing foods that are grown or processed in other countries, is the safety standards that may or may not be in place, and pesticides and other chemical additives that may be used. Need I mention the sheer distance that the food has to travel to get to your dinner table.... There is something seriously wrong with our system when we live in the midwest - with some of the finest soils on earth, and our vegetables are imported from China.

One out of four Americans is stricken with a food-borne illness each year, and of those, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die. Seafood products, according to the Centers for Disease Control, cause 18-20 percent of the known food-borne illnesses each year. With Americans consuming almost 30% more seafood than they ate 25 years ago, industrial fish and seafood farms have popped up to fill the demand. (foodandwaterwatch.org) Let's look at shrimp as an example. I picked up a package of shrimp at a local grocery store last week. Country of Origin? China. Shrimp farms are replacing mangroves (tropical coastal forests) in warm coastal areas. Mangroves not only provide habitat for marine life, they also protect the coastline. Shrimp farms (and other industrial fish farms) rely on antibiotics, fungicides, pesticides and algaecides to keep shrimp alive, however, use of these chemicals is also polluting the water, and affecting other marine life.  Antibiotics are used to prevent the spread of viruses. The White Spot virus in shrimp can survive freezing, and may still exist when the shrimp is served for dinner.

According to Food and Water Watch (foodandwaterwatch.org), the United States is importing shrimp from countries that use the antibiotic Chloramphenicol, which is linked to human aplastic anemia (a lethal blood disorder) intestinal problems, neurological reactions and other health concerns. Thailand, China, Vietnam and Ecuador all use this antibiotic in their shrimp farms and export thousands of pounds of shrimp annually to the US, even though Chloramphenicol is banned in the US, it is still finding its' way into our homes and threatening our health.

A trip to our up-north Wal-Mart proved to be a great learning opportunity for my kids when it came to label reading. Vegetables sold under the Wal-Mart brand "Great Value" listed the Country-of-Origin as "Product of China". In October, Wal-Mart recalled specific types of vegetables because customers reported finding pieces of glass in the package. (I doubt that the glass was listed in the ingredients section)

While the government's food pyramid (mypyramid.gov) suggests eating less meats & beans than when I was a kid, there are no special warnings on the page about possible health threats from imported foods.

Eating local doesn't mean simply buying foods from your local grocer, it means knowing where your food came from, how it was produced,  and what has been added to it. If the USDA is not going to regulate imported foods the same way they regulate food produced within the United States, we as consumers need to voice our concerns, and stop buying imported foods. Be COOL, be an informed consumer and read the label.