I like eating seasonally and locally, but I am a realist too. I know much of the food we all eat comes from outside the US. Remember the tomato and hot pepper salmonella scare? 
Food regulations vary from country to country and many are not as strict as ones in the US, which can pose some health risks. Now a new food label law comes into effect that will require companies to state where certain products such as meat, produce, and other products came from. Now you'll be able to tell if the foods you buy are imported or not, and from which countries they were produced.
The country of origin labeling requirement has been years in the making, and now that it's here, the law is a little confusing since not all foods are covered under the new regulations. Certain foods that are processed such as roasted peanuts, breaded chicken, and bacon are excluded from this law, as are bags of mixed lettuce. Retailers have six months from now to learn and implement the new labeling rules, so you should begin seeing labels in stores relatively soon. This mandatory labeling could help sell products since many people will appreciate knowing their apples came from a local farm. The food origin labels might also discourage people from buying products from unsafe sources, such as with the recent issues in China. The thing is though, consumers have a right to know where their food was grown or packaged. I'm in full support of this law and look forward to the day when the government requires all food retailers to state where their foods come from. What do you think? Are you happy about this new law or not really phased by it? Will these new labels affect how you shop?
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Wow THIS really amazed me! Why? Cause Germany (my home) has such a law since i can think...and pretty much every EU-country has that, as far as i am informed. I would die if i wasnt able to know where my food was produced. I mean imagine: Bananas are harvested when they are green, are container-shiped to us, so the full amount of flavour they should have is simply not there, cause of the lack of sun. I dont want to eat things that are shipped over a long distance, cause its not enviromental or ecologically thought through.