Knowing where our food comes from is one of the benefits of buying local food. When we know where our food comes from, we can take away a lot of the unknowns associated with buying food from countries that may have more relaxed food safety regulations. Also, by buying local food, we can help cut down on transportation costs, and use of gas associated with delivery of food from far distances. Primarily, if it is your goal to support local agriculture, it is very helpful when there is a label or a sign to tell you where your food comes from.
Starting this month, a new law came in to effect called the COOL law which stands for country-of-origin labeling. Under this law, retailers are required to notify customers of the country of origin their food comes from. Although country-of-origin doesn’t necessarily mean local to all people, this law is a step in the right direction.
There are some exceptions to this law, however, that can make it difficult to know where all your food is coming from. All processed foods, for example, are not required to have a label on the packaging. Foods that are mixed together as well as meat and seafood sold in butcher shops and fish markets are also exempt. As I think of much of the food that is available in the grocery store, a large proportion of it falls under the above exemptions.
In your efforts to choose more local produce, look for this labeling while continuing to shop at local Farmer’s Markets or purchase food from local farmers. When in the grocery store, a healthy step for getting more local and nutritious food is to choose more of the whole, unprocessed foods, typically located along the perimeter of the store. These foods are more likely to have COOL labeling.
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