Alan Simpson: “I appreciate what the sponsors of this legislation are attempting to do. It is something that the Committee on…”

“I appreciate what the sponsors of this legislation are attempting to do. It is something that the Committee on Agriculture has looked at and has debated and looked at the pros and cons and how we might be able to implement something like this. The gentlewoman from Oregon mentioned that in Florida they had a program that required labeling, and it only added one cent a week, I think it was, to the grocery bill. The reality is that even though they have that law in Florida, it is not enforced; and there is no requirement that it be enforced. Idaho actually has a meat labeling law. The Idaho legislature passed it years and years ago. It is not enforced. Cannot be enforced. That is the problem. That is why we have some numbers that say it is only one cent a week, but we do not know what the true cost of mandatory labeling would be. One of the other problems in this that we have tried to deal with in the committee is, it is the retailer that is responsible. He is the one that will be fined. How is he going to know for sure where those fruits and vegetables are coming from? Somebody says they came from his farm in California, and the retailer finds out that they came from someplace else, from Mexico or someplace else, and he has them mislabeled in his store. He is the one that will be fined $1,000, $250 every day after that. I will tell my colleagues that voluntary labeling works. I look at Idaho Potatoes. That is a brand name.…”