By Greg Henderson, Drovers

 

During Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday, Tom Vilsack, the former Ag Secretary who is President Biden’s nominee to return as Ag Secretary, said he is willing to consider reimplementation of country-of-origin labeling (COOL) regulations for meat products.

Addressing a question from Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer about whether he believes the current labeling policy adequately informed consumers, Vilsack said, “If it’s the same policy as it was four years ago when I left, the answer is no.”

As Ag Secretary under President Obama, Vilsack said, “We made every concerted effort to try to create better transparency and better information for consumers, because we understand that consumers want to know where their food comes from.”

Vilsack said the Obama Administration attempted on three occasions to strengthen COOL but was unsuccessful because of Canadian challenges to the law through the World Trade Organization (WTO). In December 2015, Congress repealed the COOL law for beef and pork because of a series of WTO rulings that prohibited labels based on country of origin on some products.

The Canadian government argued that COOL worked to the detriment of the meat industry on both sides of the border by increasing costs, lowering processing efficiency and otherwise distorting trade across the Canada-U.S. border. Mexico made similar claims.

In May 2015 the WTO ruled that U.S. COOL requirements discriminated against Canadian and Mexican livestock, and subsequently authorized Canada and Mexico to impose $1 billion in retaliatory tariffs against U.S. imports.

“I am absolutely willing to listen to anybody who has an idea” about how the U.S. can implement COOL where the WTO  doesn’t “slap it down,”Vilsack said.

South Dakota Senator John Thune asked Vilsack about volatility in the cattle markets and “what actions (Vilsack) would take to strengthen the integrity of the cattle market.”

Vilsack responded he would use every “capacity we have with USDA to make sure that we have open, fair and transparent markets.” He said he would seek price discovery data and economic analysis to “determine whether or not there’s a problem,” and if so, “using the tools we have to provide greater competition, greater openness, greater transparency, greater fairness.”

Vilsack also expressed interest in expanding processing opportunities “so that we’re not overly reliant on a small number of processors.” He also said he would work with the Department of Justice to “determine whether or not they see reasons for additional action on their behalf.”

Consumers have the right to know the origin of their beef purchases, and ranchers have the right to a fair and competitive market. This is a reasonable expectation.  However, since 2015 Congress specifically exempted beef and pork from labeling laws. Consumers do not know where their beef comes from, and ranchers do not have fair prices.

 

If you are a consumer learning of this for the first time, you might be incredulous. The last time you purchased beef from the supermarket, the labels clearly stated “USDA Graded” and “Product of the USA.” Sadly, those labels are meaningless.  The USDA label does not mean that the meat actually came from this country.  Beef or pork imported from any other country can legally have a label stating “Product of the USA” simply if it is re-packaged for retail within our borders.

 

This is why the Montana Cattlemen’s Association, the Montana Farmers Union, and the Northern Plains Resource Council are allied to ask that the Montana Legislature pass a Montana Country of Origin Labeling law.  It is true, that to be fully effective, COOL needs re-instatement on the national level, but you have to start somewhere.  If Montana, whose largest industry is cattle, cannot stand up for consumers and ranchers, who will?

 

A skeptical reader might say: “Wait a minute here, there must be more to the story. Why did Congress exempt beef and pork from the labeling law?”  The proximate reason was that the World Trade Organization directed the United States government to. The actual reasons were that the criminally convicted family who owns Brazil-based JBS (the largest beef packing corporation in the world) along with the Chinese owners of Smithfield, (the US’s largest pork packing corporation), profit from the lack of COOL.  JBS imports beef from Brazil, while Smithfield wants to export pork from China into the US. These foreign interests make money by slapping a “Product of USA” label on lesser quality imported meats. More money, in fact, than beef produced by hard-working Montana ranchers.

 

Many consumers may be fine buying imported beef, and that should be their right.  However, what is not right is buying Brazilian beef while being led to believe it was born, raised, and processed in the USA.  You might think that it would be a no-brainer to pass a MT COOL bill in the Legislature of the State of Montana, where cattle is the most important industry, but it is not.  The 2019 Legislature refused to consider COOL.

 

It is hard to explain why individual legislators don’t want consumers to know the origin of their beef, but that is in fact what happened. Clearly COOL is not in the interests of multinational corporations who prop up this rigged system that cheats family ranchers and everyday consumers with “legally fraudulent” labels.

Representative Frank Smith is sponsoring the Montana Country of Origin Placarding Act at the 2021 Montana Legislature. The bill, if it isn’t killed by foreign meatpacking interests, will ask retailers to make a reasonable effort to display a sign at the meat case with country-of-origin information for beef and pork.

 

Why wait on the federal government to get its act together? It’s time for the Montana legislature to take the bull by the horns. Consumers have the right to know where their meat comes from, and ranchers have the right to a free and fair market.  It is just that simple. Contact your legislators today and tell them to support the Montana Country of Origin Placarding Act.

 

Gilles Stockton, President, Montana Cattlemen’s Association

Walter Schweitzer, President, Montana Farmers Union

Jeanie Alderson, Chair, Northern Plains Resource Council

Senator’s New Markets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act would open interstate sale of meat processed at state facilities, provide certainty for producers

 

(U.S. Senate) – U.S. Senator Jon Tester is reintroducing his bipartisan bill to cut red tape and allow the interstate trade of meat processed at Montana state-inspected facilities today as part of his Rancher Relief Plan to help Montana producers get back on their feet following the coronavirus crisis.

 

Tester’s New Markets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act would allow meat and poultry products inspected by Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) approved state Meat and Poultry Inspection (MPI) programs to be sold across state lines, giving Montana ranchers better use of state facilities to sell their product, reducing backlogs and diversifying and providing stability to the cattle market.

 

“Montana’s farmers and ranchers produce the best beef and poultry in the world, so it only makes sense that they should be able to sell their products to folks across state lines who want to buy it,” Tester said. “This bill gives consumers more choices at the grocery store, and will open up access to new markets and revenue for Montana’s hardworking farmers and ranchers.”

 

State-inspected meat and poultry facilities are required by FSIS to be at least equal to federally inspected processing facilities. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 27 states currently operate MPI programs. Products inspected by state MPI programs are already sold for public consumption, however, they are restricted for sale within the state of inspection.

 

The New Markets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act is a central plank in Tester’s Rancher Relief Plan, which aims to provide certainty for Montana producers and give consumers more access to the products that feed our nation by opening new markets for Montana ranchers and increasing transparency in the marketplace.

 

The text of Tester’s New Markets for State-Inspected Meat and Poultry Act is available HERE.