COOL Requirements Are Causing A Heated Debate

By Sam Lewis

Meatpacking and livestock groups believe the new farm bill’s country of origin label requirements could start a trade war with Canada and Mexico

A new set of rules, country-of-original labeling (COOL) requirements, went into effect last year requiring labeling on steaks, ribs, and other cuts of meat to information regarding where the animal that made that product was born, raised, and slaughtered. For example, under the new rules a steak’s packaging may read “Born in Mexico, raised and slaughtered in the United States. “The previous labeling rules only mandated the country of origin to be mentioned, such “Product of U.S.” or “Product of U.S. and Canada.”

Supporters of COOL requirements argue the labels offer consumers valuable information about meat products. However, livestock and meatpacker groups believe the practice to be excessive and pricy. Tracking and segregating an animal all the way through the supply chain is just adding unnecessary, argues Eldon White, executive vice president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. According to White, many of the members of his group own ranches in Texas and Mexico, with those owners using the same bulls among several ranches. By dividing cows by birth country, ranchers’ profits are narrowed. “The quality of the cattle is identical, and yet the cattle coming from Mexico are being discounted between $40 and $70 a head because of the additional bookkeeping requirement,” White says.

Other opponents of COOL also argue that origin labeling requirements are being incorrectly depicted as a food safety issue. Cory Eich, president of the South Dakota Cattlemen's Association, contends all meat sold in the U.S. is inspected by the USDA. Furthering his point, Eich notes many voluntary programs, such as Certified Angus Beef, give consumers information to make informed choices.

The new farm bill includes a permanent livestock disaster assistance program, a livestock forage program, along with export assistance. While this can be viewed as a big win for the agriculture industry, many within the industry are unhappy the farm bill did not address COOL requirements. This holds especially true for Canadian agriculture officials who claim Canada may retaliate by imposing taxes on many American products. According to Gerry Ritz, Canada’s Federal Agriculture Minister and Ed Fast, Canada’s International Trade Minister, COOL labeling requirements will undermine Canadian exports and competitiveness, ultimately causing approximately $1 billion in annual losses. “By refusing to fix country of origin labelling, the U.S. is effectively legislating its own citizens out of work, and harming Canadian and American livestock producers alike by disrupting the highly-integrated North American meat industry supply chain,” the ministers say.

Several agriculture, livestock, and meatpacking organizations have voiced their opinions regarding COOL requirements in a Jan 27 letter to the House and Senate’s agriculture committee members. “This retaliation will be crippling to our industries and threaten the long-term relationship with two of our most important export markets,” the groups’ letter reads. "COOL is a broken program that has only added costs to our industries without any measurable benefit for America's livestock producers.” The groups say the letter offered many solutions to the issues, but all of them were rejected.

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