6-13 IAT More COOL

 Beef ranching in Idaho is huge and in the last week we have gotten a lot of reaction Wyatt Prescott of the Idaho Cattlemen’s Association regarding country of origin labeling. Wyatt worries openly about the demands by the WTO’s requirements to let consumers know exactly where beef was raised, under what circumstances and where it was slaughtered. Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a final rule on Country-of-Origin Labeling in effort to comply with the World Trade Organization’s requirements. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Vice President of Government Affairs Colin Woodall says NCBA is disappointed USDA is moving forward with this change in COOL. “For US cattle producers, international trade is a huge part of our ability to remain profitable. Trade as a whole is worth well over $225 per marketed animal here in the United States. A lot of that is because of the value that we get from countries that not only eat our high quality cuts but also portions of the animal that our domestic consumers do not. If the WTO determines that this new country of origin labeling program does not meet their requirements to coming into compliance from the complaints by Canada and Mexico, then they will allow both of those countries to retaliate against us, that will result in tariffs being placed upon our product and therefore we will lose a lot of that value that we currently have and that is money out of US producers pockets.”