Colorado company files lawsuit against WTO over international labeling laws

“Think locally, act globally,” is a recent adage that grew out of the rise in globalization toward the turn of the Millenium. With this came, the rise in consumer demand for where their food comes from and how it’s processed. For some companies, spreading this information has become a vital part of their business.

Morehead LLC, which operates Mile High Organics, has filed a lawsuit in Colorado against the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

In the suit, Morehead is asking for the WTO to rescind the decision it made in June 2012 that the 10-year-old Country of Origin Labeling Act (COOL) “has a detrimental impact on imported livestock,” according to the Denver Post.

On June 29, the WTO decided that COOL “accords less to favorable treatment to imported livestock than to domestic livestock” and creates a trade barrier. Morehead believes otherwise. The company stated that by identifying the country of origin, it would allow consumers to make more informed decisions on their purchases as they may not want to buy produce from a country that may be experiencing a disease outbreak or uses certain chemicals or pesticides in their processing.

“It was passed to give consumers information about where agricultural products come from,” said the plaintiffs.

As this blog has reported, consumer demand is shifting more toward transparency and information from their food products. While business operations and international trade laws and ethics may complicate matter for the WTO and COOL, companies can still benefit from designing custom labels that communicate necessary information with customers.

In order to do this effectively, businesses should invest in a Primera LX900 series color label printer.