January 22nd, 2009 By Paula Crossfield
In one of his first moves as President, Yesterday Barack Obama had his White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel send this memo [PDF] urging all departments to freeze pending regulations issued by the Bush Administration in its waning weeks, including amendments to COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) and EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program). Read More
September 19th, 2008 By Paula Crossfield
One of the side effects of a corporate leaning agriculture policy has been the dearth of information found on the labels of consumer-bought produce, meat and other foods. But on September 30th, Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) will finally be put in effect for perishable food items. This will require all unprocessed meats, produce, nuts and other commodities to be appropriately labeled with the country where they were produced, empowering the consumer in the event of a pathogen outbreak but also enabling the consumer to find fresher, more local edibles. Read More