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MCOOL Final Rule - let the arguments begin.........

Kato

Well-known member
Any information that is truthful, and that includes where a product is from, is fine to be on a label where all can see. If there is something about the truth you don't like, it seems to me it is a personal decision.

Putting a mixed origin label on beef processed in a plant that uses American and Canadian cattle does exactly that. So what's the problem? The problem is that certain people in the U.S. don't want Canadian cattle in the country. Period.

So call it what it is.

"We're not happy with MCOOL because it didn't block imports of Canadian cattle like we wanted it to."

We Canadians would be happier if you followed the rules you agreed to, and called American processed beef American, like it is, no matter what pasture it's mama stands in, but this will have to do as a way to make the best of a bad situation.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Yes it does become a product of Tyson or Cargill, and it also becomes an American product. The difference is that Tyson and Cargill do not import live cattle from South America. They import South American beef. If they bring in beef from Canada that was processed in Canada, then it's Canadian beef. The point we're trying to get across is that there's a difference between live cattle and beef. And adding that little word "origin" discriminates against only two people. Canadian and Mexican cattlemen. It does nothing to keep South American beef off the market. In fact, if the North American beef trade was to stop as some would like, it would make it easier for South American beef to get in the door.

“Discriminates” is an interesting choice of word, it’s generally the word of choice of a victim. I don’t buy it that Canadians or Mexicans are victims. Our product is under the same rules as yours. COOL identifies product from your country and my country all the same, and if that product is desired by the consumer, COOL actually becomes a marketing aid for you. What I’m hearing from you is that you don’t think your product will sell.


You are correct, it will do nothing to keep South American beef out of the country, but it will help keep South American beef out of the shopping cart – and that is what matters. Robert Mac made a good point; When all beef is sold under the packer label and that packer’s choice is to buy your cattle or South American, who’s are they going to buy? COOL give you a fighting chance to compete to put your product in the shopping cart. You can’t compete based on price and make a living, and that is what not having COOL makes you do. The world that we’re heading to includes South America having full access to the US and Canada, and unless you have brand loyalty for Canadian product, you’re going to go broke. Simple as that – you can’t compete with South America for Tyson’s buyers. You’ll go broke, Kato.

Everyone is saying how the consumer wants to know where their beef is coming from. Well, with the mixed label, now they know. The requirement has been fulfilled. It's written right on the package.

No, people want to know where their FOOD comes from. This isn’t a beef law, it’s a food law that was consumer driven. The “C” in COOL is for “Country” not “Countries”. You know dang well a mixed label is not what the legislation was intended for.

The problem you guys have with MCOOL is that your intention was to make Canadian cattle so inconvenient for the packers to buy that they would just stay away from them. It had NOTHING TO DO WITH FOOD SAFETY OR CONSUMERS. You wanted to restrict trade from Canada while maintaining unlimited access to our market.

No, we want consumers to put US beef in their carts, and not beef from anyplace else. Otherwise, we’re broke. If we don’t’ have COOL, it’s just a matter of time – and sooner rather than later – and most of the beef being sold in the US AND CANADA will be from someplace other than the US and Canada. It just so happens that our goals mesh well with consumer’s desires.
 

Big Muddy rancher

Well-known member
Sandhusker wrote"No, we want consumers to put US beef in their carts, and not beef from anyplace else. Otherwise, we’re broke. If we don’t’ have COOL, it’s just a matter of time – and sooner rather than later – and most of the beef being sold in the US AND CANADA will be from someplace other than the US and Canada. It just so happens that our goals mesh well with consumer’s desires."

No Sandhusker you don't want American feeders to put Canadian cattle in their feedlots.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Big Muddy rancher said:
Sandhusker wrote"No, we want consumers to put US beef in their carts, and not beef from anyplace else. Otherwise, we’re broke. If we don’t’ have COOL, it’s just a matter of time – and sooner rather than later – and most of the beef being sold in the US AND CANADA will be from someplace other than the US and Canada. It just so happens that our goals mesh well with consumer’s desires."

No Sandhusker you don't want American feeders to put Canadian cattle in their feedlots.

As a seller of American feeders, wouldn't that be expected? Does the Ford dealer want Chevrolet's in everybody's garages? Does the Coors guy want Bud in everybody's fridges?

But, none of that will matter if the packers are allowed to follow through with their plan of sourcing beef from any country they can to serve US and Canadian customers under just their label. Can Canada compete with South America on price, BMR?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Big Muddy rancher said:
Sandhusker wrote"No, we want consumers to put US beef in their carts, and not beef from anyplace else. Otherwise, we’re broke. If we don’t’ have COOL, it’s just a matter of time – and sooner rather than later – and most of the beef being sold in the US AND CANADA will be from someplace other than the US and Canada. It just so happens that our goals mesh well with consumer’s desires."

No Sandhusker you don't want American feeders to put Canadian cattle in their feedlots.

They won't have to if the Multinationals can just import in beef from Brazil and Argentina at 30 cents on the dollar and pass it off as generic US beef.... :(
 

PORKER

Well-known member
COOL language provides enough flexibility that the same disagreements are likely to erupt in coming days and weeks. Congress will respond by threatening to close 'loopholes' in the law."
 

Kato

Well-known member
I don't think you got what I meant. There's a difference between importing beef and importing cattle as far as these rules go.

When it comes to importing beef, then it should have a label. We want Canadian beef to have a Canadian label. When it comes to importing cattle, which are then turned into American beef, then it should be labeled as the U.S. beef that it is.

MCOOL does not change one single thing regarding the importation of beef from wherever it may come. It does affect the price of live cattle, which therefore only affects the prices received by your so called NAFTA "partners".

That is discrimination. You have not taken away anything that will affect the importation of South American beef, but you have attempted to close the border to live animal imports from your two closest neighbours.

Just admit it. The lobbying efforts to put MCOOL through have been based on the premise that it would stop the import of live cattle to your country. The fact that consumers have been spooked by Chinese melamine was just a well timed event that helped get it passed.
 

Tex

Well-known member
Kato said:
I don't think you got what I meant. There's a difference between importing beef and importing cattle as far as these rules go.

When it comes to importing beef, then it should have a label. We want Canadian beef to have a Canadian label. When it comes to importing cattle, which are then turned into American beef, then it should be labeled as the U.S. beef that it is.

MCOOL does not change one single thing regarding the importation of beef from wherever it may come. It does affect the price of live cattle, which therefore only affects the prices received by your so called NAFTA "partners".

That is discrimination. You have not taken away anything that will affect the importation of South American beef, but you have attempted to close the border to live animal imports from your two closest neighbours.

Just admit it. The lobbying efforts to put MCOOL through have been based on the premise that it would stop the import of live cattle to your country. The fact that consumers have been spooked by Chinese melamine was just a well timed event that helped get it passed.

In a free market, consumers have the right to discriminate against anything they don't want to spend their money on. If you don't like that, then don't sell here, take your marbles somewhere else. If you are trying to hide truthful information in order to sell your product, you are committing fraud.

I think you are scaring yourself into justifying fraud.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Kato said:
I don't think you got what I meant. There's a difference between importing beef and importing cattle as far as these rules go.

When it comes to importing beef, then it should have a label. We want Canadian beef to have a Canadian label. When it comes to importing cattle, which are then turned into American beef, then it should be labeled as the U.S. beef that it is.

MCOOL does not change one single thing regarding the importation of beef from wherever it may come. It does affect the price of live cattle, which therefore only affects the prices received by your so called NAFTA "partners".

That is discrimination. You have not taken away anything that will affect the importation of South American beef, but you have attempted to close the border to live animal imports from your two closest neighbours.

Just admit it. The lobbying efforts to put MCOOL through have been based on the premise that it would stop the import of live cattle to your country. The fact that consumers have been spooked by Chinese melamine was just a well timed event that helped get it passed.

Part of the concern of country is how that food was treated before it got here. Take BSE for example, that disease is contracted at an early age in the country of it's birth. Processing has nothing to do with it. Same as with other countries who use drugs on their live cattle that are illegal here. By putting a US label on product that has spent 99% of it's existence in another country, you're hiding information the consumer wants to know.

If your product is any good, having "Canada" attached to the beef in any way would be a selling point. You're telling us that having "Canada" on the label means people won't want it. You don't think you can compete.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Sandhusker- You'd think more of the Canucks would see why M-COOL- for both countries- and being able to promote your own product instead of generic beef- is so vital...

The handwriting is on the wall- if they would only read it....

Industry News - AM
JBS S.A. to enter feedlot business in Argentina: report

By Tom Johnston on 1/16/2009


Brazilian beef giant JBS S.A. is entering the feedlot business in Argentina, a land better known for grass-fed steaks, as the country tries to beef up production, according to Dow Jones.

Jorge Bowie, director of the JBS Swift Argentina division, one of Argentina's largest beef exporters, is quoted as saying the company is exploring the option as a possible way to secure a more stable supply.

The effort comes as Buenos Aires strives to boost feedlot use to increase beef production in preparation of a possible supply reduction in the near future.

Rising beef prices in Argentina, home of the highest per capita beef consumption rate in the world, also have helped spur a shift from grass-fed to grain-fed production. In a few years, some 90 percent of the country's cattle will pass through feedlots, Ricardo Echegaray, former head of the national trade office ONCCA, told Dow Jones. Currently, about a third of cattle slaughtered in Argentina go through feedlots.

JBS also owns a 150,000-head feedlot in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Through the acquisition of Smithfield Beef Group it also owns Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, which has the capacity to feed more than 800,000 head of cattle at once on operations in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Sandhusker- You'd think more of the Canucks would see why M-COOL- for both countries- and being able to promote your own product instead of generic beef- is so vital...

The handwriting is on the wall- if they would only read it....

Industry News - AM
JBS S.A. to enter feedlot business in Argentina: report

By Tom Johnston on 1/16/2009


Brazilian beef giant JBS S.A. is entering the feedlot business in Argentina, a land better known for grass-fed steaks, as the country tries to beef up production, according to Dow Jones.

Jorge Bowie, director of the JBS Swift Argentina division, one of Argentina's largest beef exporters, is quoted as saying the company is exploring the option as a possible way to secure a more stable supply.

The effort comes as Buenos Aires strives to boost feedlot use to increase beef production in preparation of a possible supply reduction in the near future.

Rising beef prices in Argentina, home of the highest per capita beef consumption rate in the world, also have helped spur a shift from grass-fed to grain-fed production. In a few years, some 90 percent of the country's cattle will pass through feedlots, Ricardo Echegaray, former head of the national trade office ONCCA, told Dow Jones. Currently, about a third of cattle slaughtered in Argentina go through feedlots.

JBS also owns a 150,000-head feedlot in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Through the acquisition of Smithfield Beef Group it also owns Five Rivers Ranch Cattle Feeding, which has the capacity to feed more than 800,000 head of cattle at once on operations in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Amen. I don't understand what part of "South America is coming" that they don't understand. Instead of wailing about our COOL, they had better be getting their own. If they think our COOL makes it hard to sell their beef, wait until South America producers have a straight shot via free trade and then they'll see how hard it is to compete on price with the world's low-cost producers. Ben claims it's coming in 2012, and that's right around the corner.
 

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