September 4, 2008
To Livestock Industry Stakeholders:
In an unprecedented meeting on August 26, 2008, 70 representatives of over 30 livestock industry sector,
species and food retail organizations and companies came together in Kansas City, Missouri to develop
universal procedures for implementing requirements of the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law
which take affect Sept. 30, 2008. Our principal goal was to agree on universal procedures and language
for using the necessary affidavits and/or declarations of Country of Origin (CoO) to move origin claims
along the livestock’s chain of custody/ownership to slaughter facilities to assure that meat covered
commodities will be accurately labeled at retail.
The undersigned are pleased to report that we accomplished our objective and the attached universal
“Country of Origin Affidavit/Declaration” statements* are recommended to the livestock industry at-large
in establishing and forwarding country of origin claims on livestock covered by the COOL law (cattle
(including veal), swine, sheep and goats). In our endeavors, we sought the simplest, most effective, least
burdensome approach for producers, marketing businesses, feeders and packers to use in implementing
and complying with COOL. We hope you will agree and will join us in adopting the attached
“Affidavit/Declaration of Origin” statements in your operation to eliminate duplicative onerous CoO
procedures.
In addition to using an affidavit/declaration of origin, the U. S. Department of Agriculture permits packers
to rely on the presence of an official ear tag and/or marking on animals that are part of a National Animal
Identification System (NAIS) compliant system or other official identification system, such as the
Canadian or Mexico official systems. For information on the use of COOL compliant identification
systems, we strongly suggest you contact a USDA representative.
For questions or further information respective to the attached documents, please feel free to contact any
of the assigned organizations and or companies in implementing CoO procedures in your operation.
Sincerely,
Agri Beef Co.
American Farm Bureau Federation
American Foods Group
American Hereford Assn.
American Meat Institute
American Sheep Industry Assn.
Cargill Meat Solutions
Dairy Farmers of America
Farmland Foods
FPL Food
Greater Omaha Packing Co.
Harris Ranch Beef Co.
JBS Swift & Co.
John Morrell Co.
Kansas Cattlemen’s Assn.
Kansas Livestock Assn.
Livestock Marketing Assn.
National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn.
National Farmers Organization
National Farmers Union
National Livestock Producers Assn.
National Meat Assn.
National Milk Producers Federation
National Pork Producers Council
National Pork Board
R-CALF USA
Smithfield Beef Group
Texas Cattle Feeders Assn.
Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Assn.
U. S. Cattlemen’s Assn.