Never thought I'd see this writer agree on COOL. :???:
Warming to COOL
4/16/2007
Steve Cornett
Your reporter, free market fool he is, continues to warm to country of origin labeling. Consider the situation with
Japan and Korea.
Those countries’ governments are both subject to a couple of kinds of pressure to limit U.S. beef imports. One bunch of pressure comes from the domestic beef producers. In both cases, cattle production is ridiculously expensive. The guys who grow cows don’t want competition from the likes of you and me. So there is the plain old protectionist climate.
But now that the U.S. has been cast as a BSE country, there is also the consumer group element—the folks who want government to keep people safe from any perceived threat.
We’ve now got OIE to agree on scientific guidelines. That’s good. If we can force our trading partners to accept them. But why don’t we spend more effort pushing the concept of labeling and consumer choice?
Our argument with Japan should be, “so, require the beef be labeled as U.S. product, and let consumers decide.” Then keep your nose out of our business. Let the market work. If consumers don’t trust U.S. beef they don’t have to buy it.
It’s my guess that few consumers would be afraid of the U.S. brand, although there might be a tendency to avoid the product over political matters. (Remember when we started calling French fries “freedom fries?”
Anyhow, I rather suppose we should lead the way on that. If people want to avoid Canadian or Mexican or Australian beef, let them. Just make it a fair and workable program. Let processors label the product as “may contain” beef from Canada or “may contain” beef from cattle born in Mexico rather than implementing measures meant to add cost to imported product.
Strikes me as more fair play and something that might take some of the protectionist pressure off here and abroad.
Warming to COOL
4/16/2007
Steve Cornett
Your reporter, free market fool he is, continues to warm to country of origin labeling. Consider the situation with
Japan and Korea.
Those countries’ governments are both subject to a couple of kinds of pressure to limit U.S. beef imports. One bunch of pressure comes from the domestic beef producers. In both cases, cattle production is ridiculously expensive. The guys who grow cows don’t want competition from the likes of you and me. So there is the plain old protectionist climate.
But now that the U.S. has been cast as a BSE country, there is also the consumer group element—the folks who want government to keep people safe from any perceived threat.
We’ve now got OIE to agree on scientific guidelines. That’s good. If we can force our trading partners to accept them. But why don’t we spend more effort pushing the concept of labeling and consumer choice?
Our argument with Japan should be, “so, require the beef be labeled as U.S. product, and let consumers decide.” Then keep your nose out of our business. Let the market work. If consumers don’t trust U.S. beef they don’t have to buy it.
It’s my guess that few consumers would be afraid of the U.S. brand, although there might be a tendency to avoid the product over political matters. (Remember when we started calling French fries “freedom fries?”
Anyhow, I rather suppose we should lead the way on that. If people want to avoid Canadian or Mexican or Australian beef, let them. Just make it a fair and workable program. Let processors label the product as “may contain” beef from Canada or “may contain” beef from cattle born in Mexico rather than implementing measures meant to add cost to imported product.
Strikes me as more fair play and something that might take some of the protectionist pressure off here and abroad.