Canadian Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, was the featured speaker today during the State Agriculture and Rural Leaders’ Annual Legislative Agriculture Chairs Summit Luncheon during the AG CONNECT Expo. While Ritz focused on ag initiatives in Canada and the agricultural and trade relationships and programs between Canada and the U.S., the issue that got many fired up in the audience was that of Country of Origin Labeling or COOL.
Ritz noted that COOL is the biggest trade hurdle between Canada and it’s a very controversial issue. There is a contingency of people who want to have all food labeled so that they know what country their food is coming from. The reasons for this knowledge are threefold: to support American-made products, protectionism and ensure food safety. On the other side of the fence are the people who don’t see the need for labeling, in part because it adds costs to food products.
The Canadian government opposes Country of Origin Label and when asked what the chances were that this policy would be enacted, Ritz simply said, “50-50.”
One last topic of discussion was farm raised fish, a movement gaining momentum in Canada and supported by the government. In closing Ritz noted, “I know there are some controversial stories around about enviromental this and so on like that. Most of them are not based on sound science they’re based on some sort of wild speculation under the moon with a tinfoil hat.”