10/29/2005

SD Stockgrowers Disappointed in Backdoor Delay of COOL

Rapid City ~ The members of the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association (SDSGA) who have long supported mandatory country of origin labeling are troubled by the obscenely underhanded method used by a few Congressional representatives to once again delay implementation of the producer and consumer-supported law for another two years.
“First of all, the purpose of the conference committee on the appropriations bill is to come to terms on a good spending bill that benefits agriculture. Both the House and Senate conferees should sit down, hold a healthy discussion and agree on an appropriations bill,” said SDSGA President Rick Fox, Hermosa, S.D. “Instead, the group held a short meeting where they avoided all ‘controversial’ issues. Then the leadership got together late in the night and decided to include a provision for another delay of mandatory country of origin labeling. The House body clearly supports mandatory country of origin labeling; the Senate body clearly supports mandatory country of origin labeling. But once again, a small minority, led by Congressman Bonilla (R-TX) Chairman of the House Ag Appropriations Subcommittee, slipped a two-year delay of the law, without any discussion or debate of the committee members. It’s obvious that Congressman Bonilla is taking his direction from packer interests and so-called cattle organizations who have made substantial political contributions, while ignoring the voice of the majority of consumers and producers who have consistently supported mandatory country of origin labeling.”

Fox goes on to talk about the importance of mandatory country of origin labeling and the overwhelming support for the issue. “Over 140 organizations representing millions of people across the country recently sent a letter to the conferees urging them not to disrupt implementation of mandatory country of origin labeling. The support is overwhelming.”
The opponents of mandatory country of origin labeling, the retailers and the packers, complain that it would be a recordkeeping nightmare, says Fox. “It’s ironic to me that the very same entities who are telling USDA that we need a uniform national mandatory animal identification system are worried about a simple country of origin label sticker. It appears that they want to force the producers to fund and maintain an animal id system, which would be far more expensive and burdensome than simple mandatory country of origin labeling, yet they themselves refuse to label their own products.”

According to Fox, mandatory country of origin labeling could be implemented with very little cost or effort to any entity in the cattle or beef industry. “It’s so simple – keep track of the imported cattle and you will know by default which are USA raised, and which are raised in other countries. The beef that enters the U.S. is already required to be marked with a country of origin label because of import regulations, so the retailers simply need to maintain the mark on the meat package.”

Fox says the reasons packers and retailers oppose mandatory country of origin labeling is simple: they don’t want to admit to consumers that they may be selling beef originating from as many as 30 countries outside of the U.S.
In light of the tactics used to slow down implementation of mandatory country of origin labeling, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association strongly urge all U.S. Senators and Congressmen to vote against the ag appropriations bill. “We hope our elected officials refrain from allowing the Congressman Bonilla’s ridiculous behavior to take effect. They need to oppose passage of the bill, to give the committee time to go back and actually discuss key issues affecting the livelihood of U.S. producers.