Idaho Cattlemen Comment on COOL
Yesterday we reported on the Obama Administrations latest actions with Country of Origin Labeling. Today some thoughts from a beef expert with strong ties to the Idaho Cattle Association. John Nalivka’s the President and owner of Sterling Marketing which is a market and advising service for the red meat industry. He feels that the COOL legislation has in part been driven by politics and jockeying for power within various factions of the beef industry. How does he believe the beef industry feels about COOL?
(Nalivka) “You get mixed reaction. I guess as a general statement I think the majority of the industry was not for it from the mandatory standpoint. This was a resolution that we brought out of the marketing committee at the Idaho Cattle Association was that if you’re going to do it, do it voluntarily. So the key was voluntary. Well, then it became a law and became mandatory. So then once it was a law, I think everybody decided across the industry, OK, it’s a law, now we’ll live with it. Let’s not sit around and fret and fight over it. We’ll figure out how to get this done and we’ll do it in a way to stay within the law and keep it as simple and least costly as possible. Everybody’s good to go, we know what we have to deal with.”
