House Passes Farm Bill
The U.S. House of Representatives Friday passed a version of the 2007 Farm Bill the White House has threatened to veto, but many meat industry groups say a mandatory country-of-origin (sometimes referred to as Col or COOL) labeling provision included in the legislation is moving in the right direction, according to MeatingPlace.com.

The 231-191 vote was largely along party lines and without the support needed to override a veto. The Senate is expected to start on its version of the legislation in September.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) gave the bill a mixed review overall, but called the modest fixes to country-of-origin labeling an improvement over the 2002 provisions, which were never implemented and are set to expire Sept. 30.

NCBA said the House version alleviates most of the recordkeeping burden for cattle producers and addresses the dilemma of labeling ground beef by allowing language that indicates whether it is from it from mixed or multiple origins.

“The fixes in the Farm Bill certainly don’t repair all of the problems in the COOL law, but we’ve come a long way toward making it more workable for our cattlemen,” NCBA’s Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Colin Woodall said.

The House country-of-origin provisions create three categories of labeling: one that indicates product was born, raised and harvested in the United States; one that indicates product was not exclusively born, raised and harvested in the U.S.; and one that includes products entirely derived from foreign countries. Ground meat product can be labeled with a list of countries where product may have originated.

Bill Introduced to Fight Agroterrorism
Senators Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) have introduced legislation that sets out a national strategy to prepare for, detect, respond to and recover from an agroterrorism attack or catastrophic food emergency, according to a press release from Sen. Burr’s office.

The National Agriculture and Food Defense Act requires federal, state and local governments to work with private businesses to prepare for, detect, respond to, and recover from an agroterrorism attack or deliberate food contamination. It authorizes $2 million in funding to train and educate state personnel on food defense and help states develop food emergency response plans.

The legislation also seeks to improve communication and coordination between state and federal authorities by authorizing states to hire agriculture and food defense liaison officers. To speed up detection of animal disease outbreaks and food-related emergencies, the bill integrates nationwide diagnostic laboratory networks and develops on-site rapid diagnostic tools.