Last month, Congress repealed the country-of-origin-labeling rule (COOL) on beef and pork after the World Trade Organization (WTO) insisted it was done, imposing 1 billion in tariffs against the US if it didn’t comply.

COOL used to mandate labels on packaging to indicate the country (or countries) where the meat animal was born, raised and slaughtered. On the plus side, though beef and pork will no longer have to comply with COOL rules, chicken and lamb must still be labeled.

Unfortunately, the US attempted to fight the change, but failed.

“Effective immediately, USDA is not enforcing the COOL requirements for muscle cut and ground beef and pork,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement, adding that consumers should still feel safe knowing that “all imported and domestic meat will continue to be subject to rigorous inspections by USDA to ensure food safety.”

How does this affect our food?

Now that we will not know the country of origin of the meats, I decided to check out some local farms where I live in New Jersey to find out exactly what this means for our collective health.

Well, turns out that it means we are not going to know if the meat or chickens we buy in our grocery stores come from China, Europe or India.

But what about health standards? And what does this mean as far as organic food?  

Our standards here in the United States can be much different then the standard in China.

This is a very scary thought for me as we don’t know what they are doing and how they are raising their animals. 

Personally, I just felt that it would be much safer coming from the US.

But maybe not.

It turns out that I might have been wrong. You see, after I decided to start investigating local farms, some shocking truths were revealed. 

Even though I do not eat meat, I really wanted to help my clients make better choices and start some relationships with the local farms. Well, I was in for a really big surprise! You won’t believe what I found. 

This Shocking Secret Was Revealed When I Visited the Poultry Farms

Every poultry farm I visited, it turns out, is using GMO grains of corn and soy – and they are charging 3 times the price of even Organic-Certified chickens and turkeys from Whole Foods. 

I was shocked to say the least.