It was billed in conference literature as “the great debate” but the two debaters had opinions in common.
They both think country-of-origin labelling, the American legislation that has dramatically reduced Canadian livestock exports to the United States, is unnecessary and damaging.
And they are both Americans.
Barry Flinchbaugh is a renowned agricultural economist at Kansas State University and chair of the U.S.-based Farm Foundation. Charles Stenholm served 26 years in the House of Representatives and is the former ranking Democrat on the House agriculture committee.
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They debated at the recent agricultural media summit in Forth Worth, Texas, before a stockyard full of agricultural journalists.
Flinchbaugh doesn’t gild the lily when giving his opinion.
“I think COOL is pure crap and has no place in a global economy,” he said.
The crusty prof quoted a survey indicating Americans claim willingness to spend 11 percent more on food if they know it is American.
Why is legislation needed, asked Flinchbaugh, when the market will manage it?
“This is an area the government doesn’t need to get into, frankly, and they’re going to screw it up.”
The silver-haired Stenholm, now a lobbyist, was polite in his COOL assessment.
“I’ve had a difficult time understanding … how someone can be 100 percent politically in favour of mandatory COOL and 100 percent against national identification,” he said about quixotic legislator interests.
Stenholm suggested COOL could damage animal agriculture in the U.S. as well as in Canada and Mexico.
I talked to many business representatives at the summit trade show and none of them were enamoured of COOL. Then again, they may have tempered their remarks when they saw the prominent Canadian flag on my name tag, revealing my own country of origin.
“We’re stuck with it so we might as well move forward,” was the reaction at the American beef check-off booth. But the man also knew Canada isn’t prepared to do that, having launched a COOL challenge through the World Trade Organization.
In the circles where I and other Western Producer staffers move, we seldom encounter supporters of COOL no matter which side of the border we are on.
Was there a huge and probably urban American constituency that demanded and supported COOL? The fact of the legislation is evidence of such, but it’s odd that it seems to have so few supporters.
It certainly makes one wonder how such legislation comes about.
