Fwd: Ideal Bite: COOL as a Cucumber

August 5, 2009

Ideal Bite <daily

cyndikrall

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 4:07 am

Ideal Bite: COOL as a Cucumber

August 05, 2009

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COUNTRY OF ORIGIN LABELS

COOL as a Cucumber

It's not a surefire way to lower your CO2 output, but knowing where your food comes from helps you manage health risks and support the economy.

Wanna know where the cukes in your shopping cart were grown? Calmly check the label. The Feds now require Country of Origin Labels (COOL) on more foods than ever, giving you pieces of info for peace of mind.

Not feeling so nervous about pollution. Buying food grown closer to home means it probably took less transport energy (and its associated pollution, such as CO2 from trucks) to get from the farm to the supermarket.

Staying chill. COOL reduces health risks - you'll know what foods to avoid when country-related recalls (like the Mexican tomato one earlier this year) happen.

Zenning out on American goods. Opt for labels with USA on 'em to help stimulate our economy.

It's not food, but on a recent excursion to an office supplies megastore, Heather cringed when she saw an American flag stamp marked "Made in China."

Note: Only big retailers (think supermarkets) have to comply, so you probably won't find COOL at your corner market.

USDA - everything you'd ever want to know about COOL (and some stuff you probably don't); check here (PDF) for a list of the foods that require COOL and ones that don't.