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What's the matter with M-COOL?

Sandhusker

Well-known member
What’s the Matter with M-COOL?

Billings, Mont. – Country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat has become the law of the land, and you’d think a pig had been stuck with a knife considering all the squealing coming from the multinational beef packing industry and its trade associations.

The U.S. was the last country in the Western Hemisphere without some form of COOL for meat. COOL never would’ve come to pass here unless consumer groups had joined the fight. A few thousand independent cattlemen were no match for the millions of dollars raised by those opposed to COOL, mainly the beef packing industry and grocery store groups. Once millions of consumers became incensed about melamine in their dog and cat food, COOL became a reality.

Well, it wasn’t quite that simple, but almost.

The mandatory COOL law was written to accommodate trade with our neighbors. “Born and Raised in Canada, Slaughtered in U.S.,” or “Born in Mexico, Slaughtered in U.S.,” are legal, proper labels. Initially, the packing industry simply labeled all meat products “Product of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.”

A simple ‘North American’ label, but it misleads consumers when it is applied to beef that is exclusively of U.S. origin and does not provide consumers with their right to exercise choice in the marketplace.

Wendy’s restaurants proudly advertise their hamburgers are made from North American beef. The North American label is a mixed label and is not what Congress intended for beef produced from cattle born, raised and slaughtered in the United States of America.

Packers like Tyson Foods labeled their beef with a mixed North American label. Yet, once forced to actually label red meat properly, several packers placed the origin label in such small letters it takes reading glasses to actually read it, if you can even find it.

Until meatpackers begin to properly distinguish beef from U.S. cattle from the beef from Canadian or Mexican cattle with a conspicuous and legible label, the marketplace will not function properly and the benefits of COOL cannot materialize. If COOL was implemented as the law is written and if USDA would enforce the rules as Congress intended, consumers would be able to exercise choice in the marketplace, and the demand created by their choices would determine the relative value of cattle from the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Unfortunately, these relative values for domestic and imported cattle are being arbitrarily decided by the multinational packers that are politically motivated to destroy COOL.

These packers are now making it difficult for Canadian and Mexican cattle to receive the mixed label (cattle imported from Canada and slaughtered in the U.S. are eligible for a mixed label that states “Product of Canada and U.S.”). This has prompted Canada and Mexico to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). U.S. cattlemen who feed Mexican steers are being discounted by the packers, if the packers even choose to buy them. This is going on even though the beef from those cattle is eligible for a mixed-origin label that includes both the U.S. and Mexico.

While all this is happening, USDA does nothing – by design, I think. USDA did not support COOL, and I believe, is setting up COOL for a complete failure. If this occurs, beef will be generic in the U.S., and the U.S. consumer will have no idea where their beef originated in the world and no choice as to which country’s beef they choose to cook for their family’s dinner.

The long-range goal of the huge multinational food corporations is to acquire food anywhere in the world where it can be produced for the least cost, where cheap land and cheap labor can be exploited. We have seen in this country what “too big to fail” has wrought in the financial industries. Do we really desire to turn over food production to multinational corporations?

There basically is only one industry left in Rural America sufficiently dispersed to provide nearly every rural community with the opportunity to generate new economic activity. That industry, the independent U.S. cow/calf sector, produces a new set of wealth each spring. If this sector fails, grocery stores will be full of food from around the world, and the average American will have no choice as to which country’s beef her family consumes.

It will be generic beef.

I give us about 10 years, unless we fight for COOL, and win
 

Kato

Well-known member
Your packing plant, your processing, that makes it your beef. If you were selling a live steer, then it's a product of Canada. Sell the steaks from that steer, if it's processed in the U.S., and it's American beef.

That's what's wrong with MCOOL. It's the ONLY thing wrong with it. Other than that, by all means, go for it.
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Kato said:
Your packing plant, your processing, that makes it your beef. If you were selling a live steer, then it's a product of Canada. Sell the steaks from that steer, if it's processed in the U.S., and it's American beef.

That's what's wrong with MCOOL. It's the ONLY thing wrong with it. Other than that, by all means, go for it.

Canadian orange juice, anyone?
 

cowsense

Well-known member
Sandy...........what has been the total cost to industry to implement M-Cool to date?? Even more important is WHO is paying the bill for the program?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Kato said:
Your packing plant, your processing, that makes it your beef. If you were selling a live steer, then it's a product of Canada. Sell the steaks from that steer, if it's processed in the U.S., and it's American beef.

That's what's wrong with MCOOL. It's the ONLY thing wrong with it. Other than that, by all means, go for it.

That is the reason they even made the exception for the cattle raised in Canada- fattened in Canada- and slaughtered in the US------Product of Canada and the USA.......

But some in Canada would rather LIE to consumers and falsify where the product comes from :???:
Canada- and Canadian producers years ago made the precedent with NAFTA that there is no NO North American cattle or beef when they shut down US cattle going to Canada--

SO WHY DO "SOME" CANADIANS WANT TO LIE TO THE PRODUCERS OF BOTH COUNTRIES NOW :???:

PUT IT OUT THERE- IN BIG LETTERS---WHERE BORN- WHERE RAISED- AND WHERE SLAUGHTERED- IN BOTH COUNTRIES- and leave it to the consumers that put out the bucks to choose!!!!!!!

Anything else is trying to mislead the consumer- and very much misrepresentative of most of the Canadian ranchers/producers I've know for 50+ years.....
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
cowsense said:
Sandy...........what has been the total cost to industry to implement M-Cool to date?? Even more important is WHO is paying the bill for the program?

I don't know if there is a figure, and since the folks who are fighting it would be the ones to put it together, I don't know if you could believe it. It would be like taking Obama's word for the "Jobs created or saved".
 

Kato

Well-known member
PUT IT OUT THERE- IN BIG LETTERS---WHERE BORN- WHERE RAISED- AND WHERE SLAUGHTERED- IN BOTH COUNTRIES- and leave it to the consumers that put out the bucks to choose!!!!!!!

Is that what you really want? Really? Have you any idea just how much beef is imported from the U.S. to Canada? Have you any idea what Canadians really think of American beef? I don't think you have a clue. This is the only country in the world where the consumption of DOMESTIC beef rose after the finding of BSE. Canadians, when they knew what trouble we were in rallied around us like no one could ever predict. The only thing that moves American beef in this country is the fact that we don't have the labeling laws..... yet.

Be careful what you ask for.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Kato said:
PUT IT OUT THERE- IN BIG LETTERS---WHERE BORN- WHERE RAISED- AND WHERE SLAUGHTERED- IN BOTH COUNTRIES- and leave it to the consumers that put out the bucks to choose!!!!!!!

Is that what you really want?
Really? Have you any idea just how much beef is imported from the U.S. to Canada? Have you any idea what Canadians really think of American beef? I don't think you have a clue. This is the only country in the world where the consumption of DOMESTIC beef rose after the finding of BSE. Canadians, when they knew what trouble we were in rallied around us like no one could ever predict. The only thing that moves American beef in this country is the fact that we don't have the labeling laws..... yet.

Be careful what you ask for.

So you rather lie to folks instead????? Consumers of your own country???? To me- thats ENOUGH SAID :( :mad:
 

burnt

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Kato said:
PUT IT OUT THERE- IN BIG LETTERS---WHERE BORN- WHERE RAISED- AND WHERE SLAUGHTERED- IN BOTH COUNTRIES- and leave it to the consumers that put out the bucks to choose!!!!!!!

Is that what you really want?
Really? Have you any idea just how much beef is imported from the U.S. to Canada? Have you any idea what Canadians really think of American beef? I don't think you have a clue. This is the only country in the world where the consumption of DOMESTIC beef rose after the finding of BSE. Canadians, when they knew what trouble we were in rallied around us like no one could ever predict. The only thing that moves American beef in this country is the fact that we don't have the labeling laws..... yet.

Be careful what you ask for.

So you rather lie to folks instead????? Consumers of your own country???? To me- thats ENOUGH SAID :( :mad:


:lol: :lol: :lol:

This has got to be a surpassing example of hypocritical false indignation . . .

:lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Sandhusker

Well-known member
Kato said:
PUT IT OUT THERE- IN BIG LETTERS---WHERE BORN- WHERE RAISED- AND WHERE SLAUGHTERED- IN BOTH COUNTRIES- and leave it to the consumers that put out the bucks to choose!!!!!!!

Is that what you really want? Really? Have you any idea just how much beef is imported from the U.S. to Canada? Have you any idea what Canadians really think of American beef? I don't think you have a clue. This is the only country in the world where the consumption of DOMESTIC beef rose after the finding of BSE. Canadians, when they knew what trouble we were in rallied around us like no one could ever predict. The only thing that moves American beef in this country is the fact that we don't have the labeling laws..... yet.

Be careful what you ask for.

Using the definition of origin that you do where beef from an animal that never was owned by a Canadian nor got within 2000 miles of the Canadian border can still be called "Product of Canada", I fail to see how your threat carries any weight. "Domestic Beef" is whatever the packers choose to call it. Why are you carrying water for them?
 
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