Soap, I was going to pm you this but then thought maybe I'd just throw it out there for rational discussion from the board. You irrational types, and you know who you are, need not be a part of this.
I know the main reason you are against M-COOL is because you've been told there can be no enforcement without traceback, which isn't part of the law. You want "teeth". Here's my thinking - and I'm on my second cup of coffee so I'm thinking really fast right now....
All beef that hits our shores is already COOL. From what I garner, all Mexican cattle that come in are branded "M" and now all Canadian cattle need to be branded "CAN". As long as the folks at the border do the job already assigned to them, we have working traceback today that will identify country of origin. If the box doesn't have a foreign label, it's US. If the animal isn't branded "M", or "CAN", it's US. The hard part is already done.
Everything now goes to the packer or whoever is using the foreign beef. Contrary to what some biased reality ignoring fools might claim, the packers can segregate cattle and account for all the individual packages. They're already doing it. The only enforcement that would need to be done would be at the packer level to make sure they're not calling something what it is not - and there already are inspectors to monitor the process.
What do you think?
See you tonight?