Differences over labeling dominated debates over food policy in 2015 and promise to carry on into the new year.

 

In a historic move, Congress in December repealed the country-of-origin labeling requirements for beef and pork after a World Trade Organization decision cleared the way for Canada and Mexico to levy retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products.

 

The repeal provision, which was included in a government-wide fiscal 2016 spending bill, ends a battle that had been raging since COOL was first mandated in the 2002 farm bill.

 

The issue of labeling biotech foods has proven far more difficult for Congress to resolve. The House easily passed legislation to preempt state GMO labeling laws, the first of which is scheduled to take effect in Vermont in July. But negotiations among Democrats bogged down in the Senate, and the industry was unable to get even a temporary, two-year provision included in the spending bill.

 

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