Comments of Consumers Union on the Agricultural Marketing Service Proposed Rule on Addition of Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling Requirements for Venison

Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization arm of Consumer Reports, welcomes the opportunity to comment on the proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to add venison and ground venison to the list of covered commodities subject to mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) regulations. We strongly support USDA’s proposal to require that muscle cuts and ground meat from farmed mammals belonging to the deer family, Cervidae, be labeled as to the country of origin in terms of where they were born, raised, and slaughtered. Polls show widespread support for COOL among U.S. consumers.