MCOOL Back in Conversations

With President Donald Trump's announcement to reopen beef imports from Argentina. Questions are surfacing about whether it's time to bring back mandatory country-of-origin labeling. Mike Stranz, Vice President of advocacy for the National Farmers Union, shares NFU’s perspective on the issue.

“There's been an impact on political interest in approving legislation to reinstate mandatory country of origin labeling. After all, if there's going to be more imports from other countries into our beef marketplace, there ought to be mandatory labeling laws on the books to make sure that consumers have the right to know where the beef comes from and a clear, strong labeling regime in place to make sure that those are clearly labeled as such.”

Strandz says the National Farmers Union has been a strong supporter of M cool, back in a policy since its creation in the early 2000s. Recently, Wyoming Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and several colleagues reintroduced legislation to reinstate M cool, renewing the debate over transparency in beef labeling.

“We opposed its clawing back in 2015 when Congress struck it down. I think that we're in a different time now, and consumers really want to know about where their food comes from, especially when it's very clear we're going to be importing more beef. So we're hopeful that there's some legislative avenue to get this done.”

Mike Stranz with the National Farmers Union.