Supporting USDA crackdown on “Product of USA” fraud

In June 2023, Antimonopoly Counsel drafted a public comment on behalf of Farm Action, Rural Coalition, and the American Grassfed Association, in support of a proposed rule from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) that would restrict the use of “Product of U.S.A.” label to meat products that are derived from animals born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States. 

Before this rule was proposed, an FSIS policy adopted in the early 2000s had allowed the “Product of U.S.A.” label to be used on imported meat so merely passed through a domestic USDA-inspected plant. The farm groups’ comment set forth the legal foundation for the proposed rule and enumerated the benefits it would produce for American farmers and consumers. 

Reviewing decades of research into consumer attitudes towards food labels, the comment made clear that the label usage allowed by FSIS’s prior policy deceived consumers, and showed how the proposed rule would bring the “Product of U.S.A.” label into alignment with what consumers already believe it means. With the proposed rule, the comment argued, FSIS “would take a significant step toward giving consumers the information about where their food comes from that, in survey after survey, consumers have indicated they want to have.”

The benefits of the proposed rule are particularly compelling for U.S.-based farmers. For decades, “cheap imports masquerading as domestic products” have “[undermined] the competitive position of independent ranchers and processors” and denied them market opportunities. Under the proposed rule — which was finalized in February of 2024 — consumers will be able to “confidently locate meat products derived from animals bred and raised by American ranchers, slaughtered in American processing facilities, and prepared for wholesale distribution and retail consumption by American workers.” By allowing consumers to act on their well-documented preference for domestic products, the comment explained, the proposed rule could support a shift in consumer spending that “substantially enhance[s] market opportunities for independent ranchers and processors.”