WTO shafts US consumers again today

Or not.

Workers got the SHAFTA again today, with the World Trade Organization ruling foreign food processors don't have to identify where beef, pork and some fresh produce come from.

This is just great. Just as we learn there's formaldehyde sprayed on cabbages and kebabs made from cat meat in China, the WTO says American consumers don't have the right to know where their food comes from.

Reports Bloomberg:

U.S. country-of-origin labeling provisions violate global trade law and unfairly curb agricultural commerce, World Trade Organization judges said as they upheld an earlier ruling backing Canada and Mexico. 

Under U.S. law in force since March 2009, food processors must identify the nations from which cattle, hogs and some fresh produce originate. The legislation has its roots in the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, in a Canadian-bred animal in 2003. 

Canada and Mexico said the provisions impose unjust costs on their exports, reducing their competitiveness. They complained at the Geneva-based WTO in December 2008, challenging provisions of the U.S. Food, Conservation and Energy Act that impose mandatory country-of-origin labeling, known as COOL, for beef, pork, chicken, lamb and goat as well as some perishables sold by U.S. retailers.

Maybe it's time to buy that iPhone app that tracks China's food scandals.