Posted January 31, 2014
While most celebrated when the U.S. House passed a farm
bill on Wednesday, some regional beef producers were disappointed when the
Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) provision was not excluded, according to an
article by AgWeek available here.
The COOL final rule, available here,
became effective on May 23, 2013 and modified certain provisions of the COOL
regulations after the World Trade Organization (WTO) found that aspects of the
regulations violated U.S. trade obligations.
The final rule requires labels on certain cuts of meat, to provide
information on where it was born, raised, and slaughtered.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently
heard oral arguments on a case involving the COOL rule, Meat Institute, et al. v. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Recent
posts from this blog on the case are available here
and here.
Supporters of COOL say consumes have a right to know
where their meat comes from. Opponents,
however, say the law imposes unnecessary costs on the industry and may violate
World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.
Kenny Graner, a North Dakota beef producer and
president of the Independent Beef Association of North Dakota, supports COOL,
saying, “We’re proud of the product that we raise, and we shouldn’t disguise
it.” The National Farmers Union (NFU),
the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association and the Consumer Federation of America also
support COOL.
Other organizations including the American Meat
Institute, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), the National
Chicken Council (NCCP), the National Pork Producers Council, the National
Turkey Federation, and the North American Meat Association oppose the rule,
according to a Food Safety News article here.
“COOL is a broken program that has only added costs to
our industries without any measureable benefit for America’s livestock
producers,” the opposing organizations write in a recent letter to farm bill
conferees.
In a news conference on Tuesday, House Agriculture
Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) explained that in discussing the call to repeal COOL
during the conference, “the votes were not there in either body.”
The National Agricultural Law Center offer many
valuable resources on COOL, here. A helpful webinar, “COOL or Not so COOL: An
Overview and Discussion of Country of Origin Labeling” is available here.
