MYTH: (according to R-CULT): "Because such a large percentage of the imported product will be exempt and the vast majority of the product in the retail meat case would carry the U.S. label, mandatory COOL will just homogenize our brand and mike it meaningless. Worse yet, we've paid for it (because the cost of business will be pushed down to the cow-calf operator) instead of paying for it. For adding value to our product by producing higher quality, source-verified cattle, we should receive a return on our investment instead of being stuck with added cost and 2) Our country was founded on free enterprise, not socialism or isolationism. We need to let the free market system in this country decide the value of origin labeling.
FACT: (according to R-CULT): "In 2002, prior to the Canadian BSE problems, the U.S. imported 2.6 million cattle and 3.5 billion pounds of beef. This represents nearly 18% of all beef consumed. Cattle imports represented nearly 9% of all the cattle processed in the U.S. and it is well understood that the subsequent beef products would find their way proportionately to the meat counter, i.e., one would expect 9% of the beef at retail to be from imported cattle and and additional 2-4% from beef imports. That is well over 50% of imported- source beef will be labeled."