Food: Made in the U.S.A.

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Senate minority leader Tom Daschle, attuned to ranchers in his home state of South Dakota, is pushing a bill to reinstate this year's across-the-board deadline. The law, he says, "enables Americans to perform a simple but significant act of patriotism every time they visit the grocery store." On the other side, Representative Charles Stenholm, a Democrat from Texas, mindful of Lone Star State feedlots that import Mexican cows, is co-sponsoring legislation to jettison mandatory labeling in favor of a voluntary system. That bill is backed by the four processors--Tyson Foods, Swift & Co., Cargill and National Beef Packing Co.--that control 81% of the nation's cattle market. They argue that foreign governments could retaliate for any labeling law by blocking American produce. "We do not need to jeopardize our access to foreign markets by adopting such protectionist policies," Tyson lobbyist Sara Lilygren recently e-mailed Senate staff members.

Whether patriotic or protectionist, country-of-origin legislation, after years of debate, got a boost from terrorism. "With 9/11, COOL took on a life of its own as a food-safety issue," says Barry Scher, vice president of Ahold, the supermarket conglomerate. "It got hard for Congress to look the other way." But retailers contend the law would do nothing to control contamination or pesticides, much less bioterrorism. And, they say, it would cause chaos in the grocery aisles. Should stores be fined $10,000 if a clerk tosses bananas from Costa Rica under a shelf tag reading ECUADOR? Should the same ocean-caught fish be labeled NORWEGIAN or AMERICAN, depending on the flag of the ship? And what's a consumer to make of hamburger that contains beef bred in Canada, fattened in the U.S. and ground up with Australian trimmings?

But while retailers allege it will cost billions to comply, consumer activists claim that COOL is doable. Forty-eight other countries require identification by national origin for one or more commodities. And since 1980, Florida has mandated the labeling of foreign produce--an effort that takes an estimated two man-hours per store per week to execute. In fact, most produce carries stickers that could include the information. In addition, two food chains, Wild Oats and Whole Foods, already label food by origin.

To counter the accusations of protectionism, farmers point out that U.S. safety, labor and environmental rules are tougher than those in most foreign markets--making American-produced goods more expensive. Pesticide use is more restricted in the U.S. than in many foreign countries. Child labor is forbidden. And inspectors keep closer tabs on whether fields have toilets and hand-washing facilities. Last November three people died and 600 became ill with hepatitis A from unsanitary Mexican scallions at a Pennsylvania restaurant. Likewise, hundreds have fallen ill over the past decade after eating Mexican cantaloupes and strawberries and Guatemalan raspberries. "Americans prefer American produce because they don't want to get sick," says Chuck Obern, a Florida vegetable farmer. COOL, he says, allows him to "promote my wares with information rather than resort to tariffs."