Sonny Bono: “The reality today is that food is a global product. Whether it is Mexican cantaloupe or Coachella Valley table grapes…”

“The reality today is that food is a global product. Whether it is Mexican cantaloupe or Coachella Valley table grapes, the need for country of origin labeling is a consumer information and safety issue that affects millions of Americans. With this in mind, I, along with the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley) am offering legislation, H.R. 1605, The Produce Consumers Right to Know Act, as an amendment to the pending legislation before this House. For the past 69 years, goods imported into the United States have been required to be labeled with their products country of origin so that the consumer will ultimately know where the product was produced. Your shirt, your coffee mug, your chair and your pen probably all have country of origin labels, yet there is no law that mandates that fresh fruit and produce be labeled with its country of origin. When the last comprehensive labeling Act was passed by Congress nearly 70 years ago, there were there very few fruit and vegetable imports into the United States so the requirement was unnecessary. However, in the 21st century, with free trade agreements, produce is now widely imported to every city and every State of this country.”