MCOOL Labeling
From the Western Ag Network, I’m Bob Larson. USDA isn’t waiting for a farm bill that includes a beef labeling amendment to pass before studying a World Trade Organization- compliant way to implement mandatory country-of-origin labeling.
Undersecretary for Food Safety Mindy Brashears …
BRASHEARS … “We will also be doing a study on M-COOL, Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling, just the feasibility of that. There will be some data collected on that.”
A Senate farm bill amendment by Majority Leader John Thune would also study making M-COOL WTO compliant …
THUNE … “We do label poultry, we label lamb, and we label fish. So, all the other kinds of protein in this country get labeled. We don’t label beef. And I think when you’re talking about transparency, you’re talking about pricing in cattle markets. There probably isn’t anything that matters more to producers around this country, than being able to differentiate their product from other products that are imported from other places around the world.”
And for a good reason … the American consumer …
THUNE … “But it just seems insane to me that we don’t have the very thing that we put in the center of our plate labeled, when everything else that comes into this country has to be labeled.”
So, USDA and USTR will now have a head start to study M-COOL ahead of a farm bill passing.
And more importantly, ahead of any new WTO challenges on U.S. labeling violations.
