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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gst" data-source="post: 41747" data-attributes="member: 373">Prairie, if you wish to know where your food comes from, in every grocery store I have been in there are branded products that identify back to a producer and origin that you can purchase if you wish. These products are usually higher priced, and are so for a reason because it costs more to identify these products back to an origin. This used to be one of the fastest growing segments of the beef industry but mandatory COOL took that private company identification to differentiate their product away with a govt mandate. For years in tracking of consumer purchasing influencers, pricing has ALWAYS been a top factor and ususally the number one factor with consumers. When asked, people do want to know "where their food comes from" but when asked if they will pay more for that information most say no. So who eats that cost? The producer. So the choice is do we let individual producers and companies gain the value of differentiating their products for those consumers willing to pay the difference in cost for that information thru the free market ideology, or do we have the govt mandate identification and have the cost of that mandate passed back to the producer. Not to mention questioning the wisdom of kicking our top trading partners in exports of American food products in the nuts with a govt mandated trade policy.</blockquote>