I was struck by this sentence from a Global Trade Watch blog post, in reaction to yesterday's WTO panel report in the Article 21.5 proceeding in U.S. - COOL:
The COOL policy was created when Congress enacted mandatory country-of-origin labeling for meat – supported by 92 percent of the U.S. public in a recent poll – in the 2008 farm bill.
92 percent? I didn't think you could get 92 percent of Americans to agree on anything. Even a question about whether kittens are cute would get a disgruntled 15 percent who didn't like cat hair on their couch or something. So, I clicked on their link to see what they were basing this on.
As it turns out, the survey is a little more interesting than Global Trade Watch lets on. Here's the narrative description:
Consumer Demand Information about Food Origin
The overwhelming majority of consumers want food labels to reflect country of origin (92% of consumers) and state of origin (82%).
An outstanding percentage of consumers (90%) want to know if their meat is from outside the US. Consumers were asked about their preference for country of origin labeling on meat that came from a different country like Mexico. The majority of consumers (57%) want the labeling to include where the animal was born/raised and where the animal was slaughtered. A sizable portion of consumers (33%) want more stringent labeling; if the animal was born or raised in a different country, these consumers feel this food is a product of that country. Few consumers (6%) adopt the more lenient view that being slaughtered in the USA is sufficient for this meat to be labeled as a USA product.
Even better, though, are the actual questions and answers, which were as follows (p. 21):
Q14: Which, if any, of the following information should be provided on labels for meat, poultry, fish and produce?
Country of origin 92%
State of origin, if from the United States 82%
I do not have a strong opinion about this 1%
None of these 2%
Don't know/Unsure 1%
and:
Q15: If MEAT came from an animal that was born and raised in a different country, such as Mexico, and then slaughtered in the United States, which of the following labels would you prefer to convey this?
Born and raised in Mexico, slaughtered in the USA 57%
Product of Mexico 33%
Product of USA 6%
I do not have a strong opinion about this 2%
None of these 0%
Don't know/Unsure 1%
A few thoughts here.
First of all, just to be clear, consumers may want this information in some general sense, but they were not asked about a government mandate to provide it, or whether they would pay more for products that have it. When faced with extra costs, they might think otherwise. Also, people might object to government interference here. The market does provide this information for those who want to pay for it (go to Whole Foods and see for yourself all the great information you can get!). That might be enough for many people.
Second, a pretty high number also wanted information on the state of origin. That's not something the COOL law currently does. If this law is designed as a response to consumer sentiment, how come there is no information about the state of origin? Can we look forward to Born in Virginia, Raised in Ohio, Summer camps in Vermont, Slaughtered in New York?
Third, question 15 seems less than totally objective, in two ways. For one thing, it's easy to imagine there would be less concern about food products from Canada than from Mexico. Yet Mexico was the country example given.
For another, "Product of Mexico" and "Product of USA" are not completely accurate, based on the description provided in the question. As a result, the only accurate choice was the first option. As an alternative, what about a label that says, "Product of Mexico and/or USA"? That's an obvious additional label option that would be accurate and, importantly, easier to comply with. Do people actually want information on where a piece of meat was "born", "raised", and "slaughtered"? I'm skeptical, and it will take better survey questions to convince me.
