Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Senator from NY has an interesting press release which begins:
March 3, 2010
Washington, DC – Responding to yet another recall of milk from China, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced her push for legislation that would require country of origin labeling (COOL) on all dairy products. Just last month, the Chinese government recalled 170 tons of milk powder that had been tainted with melamine. In 2008, milk tainted with melamine killed at least six infants and sickened more than 300,000 in China. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), during the past five years, U.S. dairy imports averaged around $2.7 billion annually.
If the U.S. cedes production of food to the lowest-cost producer, it leads to consolidation and eventually outsourcing. Senator Gillibrand believes it is a national security imperative that there is food production in every part of this country. In addition to Dairy COOL, Senator Gillibrand announced legislation to ensure stable farm milk pricing by requiring cold storage facilities to report their inventories to the USDA.
The entire release is at the above link.
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