Cattlemen push for 'country-of-origin labeling'

The Unites States Cattlemen’s Association, is taking the next step to pass a law that requires meat retailers to place country-of-origin labels on meat packaging.

Jess Peterson, the executive vice president of USCA, met with a group of ranchers and other Havre locals Monday to raise funds and talk about the country-of-origin label his organization has been trying to get meat packers to put on their products for years.

Country-of-Origin Labeling, or COOL, is a law that requires retailers to inform their customers of the source of their meats. These retailers include grocery stores, supermarkets and club warehouse stores, like Sam’s Club. Food services like restaurants would be exempt from using the label.

Peterson said about 10 percent of the meat that comes through a grocery store isn’t completely U.S.-bred and butchered cattle. New rules of COOL would require meat producers and packagers to place labels on meat packages — with the exception of processed meat — that tell consumers where the meat animal was born, raised and butchered, instead of the less descriptive version of the label currently required that simply lists the countries involved with the raising and processing of the meat.

One of Peterson’s concerns was that when consumers see that the meat has a “USDA Approved” label on it, they automatically think the meat is from the U.S. This isn’t necessarily so; it means simply that the meat has been inspected by the USDA.

On Aug. 9, USCA, along with the National Farmers Union, the American Sheep Industry Association and the Consumer Federation of America, filed a motion with the Washington, D.C., district court to intervene in a lawsuit filed by nine plaintiffs to end the COOL program. The plaintiffs include the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the Canadian Pork Association and others.

COOL was implemented in the 2008 Farm Bill. The lawsuit against the USDA would stop COOL. Labels on meat not completely from the U.S. inform consumers of the countries involved in the raising and slaughtering of the animal.

According to Peterson, the Canadian and Mexican organizations, which sided with the plaintiffs, fear the labels will push them out of U.S. markets. The organizations from both countries are threatening to impose tariffs to compensate for possible harm they may receive from new rules for COOL.

A hearing on the plaintiff’s request for a preliminary injunction to put COOL on hold is to start today. U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is expected to have her decision by the end of the week.

To be granted the preliminary injunction, the plaintiffs must prove that they have a good chance of winning the lawsuit and that they will suffer harm if they are not granted the injunction.

“We hope the judge will not rule in favor of the plaintiffs,” Peterson said. “(The preliminary injunction) will be a big blow at COOL if she does.”

“I can tell you as a Montana cowboy, we are going to do everything we can to win this thing,” Peterson said.

Peterson is a fifth-generation Montanan who graduated high school from Red Lodge and has been working with the USCA in D.C. since 2004.