Pete McClymont Nebraska Cattlemen EVP interviewed Colin Woodall, NCBA CEO about Country of Origin Labeling.

Country of Origin Labeling an issue the industry has been dealing  with for nearly 20 years. A significant misinterpretation is that  consumers don’t know where their food is coming from; therefore, it must  be contaminated beef coming from other countries. However, that is not  the case; COOL is a marketing program which has nothing to do with food  safety. For 6.5 years COOL was the law of the land and there is no  indication that it benefited the industry. In fact, many folks can  account for the losses they saw because of country of origin labeling.

If you look at the data, the price slide started well over 6 months  before COOL was repealed in December 2015. Canada and Mexico are 2 of  the top 5 export markets for beef and moments away from putting  retaliatory tariffs in place over COOL. The World Trade Organization  ruled in their favor over COOL saying it violated the trade agreement  because of the segregation that went into place in order to comply with  country of origin labeling.

NCBA believes in a voluntary country of origin labeling program.  Producers would not get the benefits of individualized creative product  labeling from a federally mandated program that they would with a  voluntary one. The beef industry needs to be flexible with labeling,  allowing producers to do what is best for their operation and for  consumers across the World.