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Hot Topics Relating to Livestock and Forages
Country of Origin Labeling (COOL), July 2007
Consumers want to know where their food is produced. According to a
Consumer Reports survey, ninety-two percent of respondents wanted imported
foods labeled with country of origin. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll showed half
of grocery shoppers are making an effort to buy U.S. food products. Products
from China rank highest on those shoppers’ suspicion scale: 83% are concerned
about food from China, compared with 61% concerned about food from Mexico and
39% concerned about foods from the U.S.A. Given these concerns, the final
passage of COOL requirements is a certainty.
COOL requires a retailer of a covered commodity to inform consumers of the
country of origin. The covered commodities are defined as the following:
Beef, lamb, and pork - muscle cuts and ground.
Fish and shellfish - farm-raised and wild.
Fruits and vegetables - fresh and frozen.
Peanuts.
Exempt from COOL are the following:
- Food service establishments that prepare and/or serve food,
such as restaurants, cafeterias, and food stands.
- Those selling less then $230,000 of the commodities
annually, such as a small butcher shop.
- Processed food products such as corn beef, bratwurst, or
ham.
Voluntary guidelines, published by USDA on October 11, 2002, are currently in
effect. As the title indicates, participation is not required of the livestock,
packing, or retailing industries. USDA stated that the voluntary guidelines will
be considered during the formulation of mandatory regulations, which are
currently being developed and will take effect by September 30, 2008.
The process to develop mandatory COOL guidelines is as follows:
- Provide a 60-day comment period that must be completed by
January 17, 2008. On June 15, 2007, USDA reopened the comment period for
60 days for the proposed rule for mandatory COOL for beef, lamb, pork,
perishable agricultural commodities, and peanuts. The comment period
ends August 20, 2007.
- Publish the final rule by July 19, 2008.
- Initiate a congressional review by July 26, 2008.
- Implement mandatory COOL by September 30, 2008. If
Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) fails to meet these time
requirements, funding for AMS executive salaries can be restricted.
Currently, there are three distinct product-labeling requirements in COOL, as
follows:
- U.S. only origin - Accordingly to the law, beef will be
labeled as a U.S. product only if it "is exclusively born, raised, and
slaughtered in the United States." Cattle from Alaska and Hawaii will be
included if they are transported for 60 days or less through Canada to
the U.S.
- Foreign only origin - The voluntary guidelines state that
this applies to products produced entirely outside the U.S.
- Mixed origin - The guidelines indicate a product of "mixed
origin" must be labeled according to the country of birth, the country
of raising, and the country of slaughter. A potential label for such a
product may be "Born in Country X, Raised in Country Y, and slaughtered
in the U.S." This labeling requirement also applies to mixed or blended
products, such as ground beef, if they come from different countries of
birth, raising, or slaughter.
On July 19, 2007, the House Committee on Agriculture unanimously approved a
new Farm Bill (HR 2419) that included a compromise agreement for implementing
mandatory COOL for meeting in September 2008.
Three labeling categories for muscle cuts were established under the
agreement:
- U.S. origin - products from animals born, raised, and
slaughtered in the United States
- Product of the United States and a foreign country -
products from animals that originated in another country but were raised
and harvested in the U.S.
- Product of a foreign country - products imported from a
foreign country. Ground products would be required to carry a label that
listed all countries from which the component products may have
originated.
Additionally, the compromised agreement significantly lessens the
record-keeping burden for producers and provides liability protection. It also
maintains the prohibition on the use of Mandatory Animal Identification to
implement the program. HR 2419 is scheduled for consideration by the full House
on July 26.
While the law specifically prohibits USDA from mandating an
animal-identification system, it does state that USDA "may require any person
that prepares, stores, handles, or distributes a covered commodity for retail
sale maintain a verifiable recordkeeping audit trail" and that "any person in
the business of supplying a covered commodity to a retailer shall provide
information to the retailer indicating the country of origin." In order for a
"paper trail" to exist, the supplier must know the country of birth, the country
of raising, and the country of slaughter. How can this be accomplished without a
national animal identification system?
A number of organizations view COOL as a potential burden on the retail and
other agricultural industries. They will work very hard to keep COOL a voluntary
program or influence COOL’s requirements. There also will be other groups who
will work very hard to keep COOL a mandatory program beginning September 30,
2008.
What can we do? Really not much. Extension cannot begin a COOL educational
program until the final rule is published. Agricultural producers won’t get
"stirred-up" about COOL until the final rule is published. By then, it will be
too late to do anything about it. Congress is behind COOL, so hang on - it could
be a wild ride.
Dr. Tom R. Troxel
Professor and Associate Department Head - Animal Science
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