With this week's revelations about the Food and Drug Administration's failures to adequately inspect foreign food imports, it was especially disheartening to see the continuing attacks on country-of-origin-labeling by agribusiness lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

The opponents of COOL are not taking a break from attempts to kill mandatory country-of-origin labeling. An amendment will be offered in the House Agriculture committee to weaken it by:

* Establish a "herd" definition for cattle and hogs that says an animal imported into the U.S. will be considered "USA," unless it goes directly to slaughter.

* Overturn mandatory produce COOL and make it voluntary while limiting it to the 20 most frequently consumed varieties of raw fruits and vegetables;

* Reduce fines to $1,000 after a 30-day window of opportunity for retailer to resolve mislabeling.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-SD, is a longtime supporter of COOL, which never went it effect as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. As a member of the Agriculture Committee, she will oppose any attempts to weaken it.

"Weakening the born-raised-slaughtered' standard takes the teeth and effectiveness out of the program and puts our domestic herd at risk," Herseth Sandlin said.

To allow an animal from any country to be considered "USA" after spending any time at all in an American feedlot is disingenuous and misleading.

If passed this amendment would effectively kill mandatory COOL, something a coalition of more than 200 organizations representing millions of Americans has already told Congress it wants. A Consumer Reports survey recently showed 92 percent of Americans want to know the country-of-origin of their food.

If we want to know whether our food is raised by American farmers, meeting USDA/FDA standards, or is being imported from Third World countries with endemic levels of pollution, corruption and fraud, we have to fight the agribusiness lobbyists and make sure that COOL is not once again delayed.