By the way, it turns out some blog comments are being sent to a "comment spam" folder. My apologies if that has happened to you. A comment I just discovered mentions a 2012 study about consumer opinion on mandatory country of origin labeling, a summary of which is available here. Here is one of the findings:
3. Consumers regularly indicate they prefer meat products carrying origin information. However, consumers reveal similar valuations of alternative origin labels.
- In both online and in-person assessments, research participants regularly select meat products carrying origin information over unlabeled alternatives consistent with previous research. However, in an online assessment, consumers revealed valuations of meat products labeled “Product of North America” to be approximately the same as “Product of United States.”