PHOENIX, Ariz. – American livestock producers think a two-year delay in implementing their country’s mandatory country-of-origin labelling plan may buy them enough time to develop an improved program.
“We think we can use that two years where we can reconstruct this legislation,” said Jim McAdams, chair of the voluntary country-of-origin task force initiated by the U.S.-based National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
The law was delayed until 2006 after the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted against funding the program.
Working with other farm commodity groups, packers and retailers, the committee hopes to build a voluntary certification program. The plan is to integrate existing branded programs where part of the retail label includes country of origin. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has already established voluntary guidelines for a source verification system that could be written into this initiative.
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Consumer research is also planned to see if people really want this information on their food labels. The committee hopes to build such a successful voluntary program that a mandatory system will be unnecessary.
McAdams told the NCBA international markets committee meeting in Phoenix Jan. 30 that mandatory programs are nearly impossible to change once they are in place, whereas voluntary programs can be refined.
NCBA officials also acknowledged that the law’s mandatory version has irritated trading partners.
Dana Hauck, who chairs a U.S.-Mexico trade committee, said it is seen as a threat to good relationships. Mexico did not like the COOL legislation because it sends one million feeders to the U.S. nearly every year.
The U.S. has been shut out of Mexico since Dec. 23 due to a case of BSE. If the U.S. had insisted on a mandatory law, the Mexicans could have kept the border closed to U.S. beef indefinitely.
