"Beef, designed in California"
I got some chrysanthemums as a gift last fall that came in a plastic, jack-o-lantern shaped pot. The text on the bottom read, "Made in China. Designed in USA."
Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
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Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#12Are "Product of USA"-labeled products entitled to beneficial tax treatment or subsidies? Because it would make sense for a business to attempt to minimize its production costs by outsourcing to cheaper foreign sources while reaping fiscal benefits at home.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#13Lobbying at its finest – an open form of corruption. The system needs an institution controlling these "interest groups". A force that can weigh the millions of dollars they spend to sway decision makers' opinions against "the greater good" (which often turns out to be public health). The same goes for the unneccessarily prolonged fight against tobacco companies and junk food in schools.
Unfortunately, whatever body you create to watch the body you create that watches the body you create will have people in it that will be the target of lobbing.
You need to some how break through the selection process to appoint people of integrity and put enough safeguards in place to prevent conflicts of interest.
Unfortunately, I don't know of a single time this design worked out in the past and created a working entity.
Corruption is the standard because it's the easiest path. This is true in other arenas like plaintext vs all the work of adding encryption or screen time vs exercising.
All the laws in the world won't fix a mindset or mental attitude.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#14Lobbying at its finest – an open form of corruption. The system needs an institution controlling these "interest groups". A force that can weigh the millions of dollars they spend to sway decision makers' opinions against "the greater good" (which often turns out to be public health). The same goes for the unneccessarily prolonged fight against tobacco companies and junk food in schools.
The cases were dismissed. The court basically said this is something for USDA/Congress to take care of.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#15Lobbying at its finest – an open form of corruption. The system needs an institution controlling these "interest groups". A force that can weigh the millions of dollars they spend to sway decision makers' opinions against "the greater good" (which often turns out to be public health). The same goes for the unneccessarily prolonged fight against tobacco companies and junk food in schools.
Calling food that is 90%+ made in another country a "Product of the USA" is just insulting and I think if there was no money involved in the judges' decision making they'd just call this what it is; deceptive trade practices.
The judge is likely interpreting a law that is worded to result in exactly this outcome.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#16I sympathize with US ranchers, but I agree with the courts that "Product of the USA" okay...
M-COOL (Meat Country of Origin Label) is the right solution... and let me give an example why:
If I buy a new, real wood, kitchen table, that was imported as a sapling, planted in the USA for 20 years, then milled in the USA, then worked into a table by USA craftsmen -- would that be a product of the USA? I'd say so, and I think few people would argue that the "birth" of the tree on foreign soil taints its "Product of the USA" qualities in this sense.
If you agree with me there, then what we will end up disagreeing on is when that threshold is crossed, and it's no longer "Product of the USA".
By attacking this label, it was always an uphill battle, I think.... and that's why M-COOL is the better solution. Tell me where the meat was born, raised, and slaughtered. If a soup company imports that beef and uses it in their soup that is mixed, seasoned, and canned in the USA, I don't think it's fair to say they are not a USA product, however, it's still valid and good (I think) to say that it's from imported meats.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#17In the US, Tic-Tac has zero calories. The same Tic-Tac is advertised in the EU as having "2 calories". If a pack full of candy, 0.5g (edit) sugar each, can be sold as zero-kcal candy, then what's the fuss with meat labelling? Not lobbied enough?
You have a point but it's 0.5g each candy so they're in the area of rounding errors. And as every programmer knows just one rounding error won't bite you, but when (often) it gets multiplied...
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#18The answer to the question, "does a consumer think that beef with a USA label might have come from another country?" is obviously "No"
But there is a certain type of Lawyer-brain legalism that has infected our courts, and I don't know of a good solution. But you get this kind of obvious perverse result where it just defies common sense. In that sense, I can understand how lawyers and judges looked at whatever laws that define what each part of a "product", "of", "USA" means and concluded, that yes, imported beef can technically be "Product of USA"
I'm so sick of this.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#19I sympathize with US ranchers, but I agree with the courts that "Product of the USA" okay... M-COOL (Meat Country of Origin Label) is the right solution... and let me give an example why: If I buy a new, real wood, kitchen table, that was imported as a sapling, planted in the USA for 20 years, then milled in the USA, then worked into a table by USA craftsmen -- would that be a product of the USA? I'd say so, and I th…
I disagree that your first example would qualify as a product of the USA. At least from a defense standpoint.
In my mind if a product has foreign decencies in it’s supply chain then it is not a product of the US alone. A reasonable exception for manufacturing equipment or IP owned by a foreign company.
Re: Court affirms imported beef still allowed to be labeled "Product of USA"
#20Life imitates art – specifically the Las Vegas-based surreal pseudo-mega-market "Omega Mart", which offers "Americanized Beef" in red, white, & blue: