Should Imported Beef Carry a U.S.A. Label?
Country of Origin Labeling, routinely referred to as COOL, is one of the most hotly debated topics in the livestock industry today. Many consumer interest groups and producer trade groups are calling on the government to reinstate COOL for meat imports to help consumers make more informed choices about what they are buying at the supermarket.
According to the USDA, COOL is a labeling law that requires retailers like grocery stores and club warehouses to notify customers about the source of certain foods. Only certain types of foods are covered under the current version of the law, however, including muscle cut and ground meats: lamb, goat, and chicken; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables; peanuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng.
Noticeably absent from this list is beef and pork.
This wasn’t always the case.
Beef and pork were subject to COOL until December 2015 when Congress repealed the law for these two imports. The World Trade Organization ruled that Canada and Mexico could impose more than $1 billion in tariffs on US products to punish the US for what it described as the discriminatory nature of COOL. Requiring supermarkets to label meat products as Product of the USA versus Product of Canada or Mexico gave the domestic products an unfair advantage, according to the trade organization.
And while some meat packages in the meat department are labeled as Product of U.S.A. or Made in U.S.A., an ambiguity in the regulations governing meat imports, FSIS Food Standards and Labeling Policy Book, allows importers to use the label as long as some further processing happens to the meat once it reaches US soil. In some cases, this simply means repackaging the imported goods. According to one of the most outspoken pro-COOL groups, R-CALF, meatpackers obtain beef imports from as many as 20 different countries and label the resulting products as Made in the U.S.A. through this loophole.
A lawsuit filed by R-CALF and other groups in 2019 alleged that this loophole enabled the four largest meatpackers in the world (Tyson, Cargill, Smithfield, and JBS USA) to import large volumes of foreign cattle primarily from Mexico and Canada to block domestic ranchers’ market access. Recently, the group has circulated a labeling petition urging the president and Congress to pass a mandatory COOL for beef, pork, and dairy products. It gained 250,000 signatures in just seven days, R-CALF reports.
Some grass-fed beef groups claim this loophole impacts their operations the hardest. Imports from Australia and New Zealand comprise the bulk of grass-fed beef in supermarkets. A 2017 report from Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture concluded that this figure totaled as much as 80%. It also noted that the USDA does not have a standardized definition for grass-fed meat, allowing some products bearing the label to come from animals fed grass pellets in a feedlot system.
Recently, however, the USDA has indicated it plans to revisit COOL.
While this comes as a relief to some industry stakeholders, the long history of why the US repealed COOL for beef and pork in the first place casts a shadow over any attempt to reinstate it. The fate of COOL ultimately lies in the hands of federal regulators regardless of consumer demand for reinstatement of the law or some form thereof.
During a recent hearing before the US House Agriculture Committee, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue indicated that the USDA will attempt to “thread the needle” and limit the use of Product of U.S.A. labeling to animals that are slaughtered and processed domestically. Secretary Perdue also testified before Congress, however, that COOL “is not going to happen unless we want to do billion-dollar litigation damage with Mexico and Canada.”
Still, COOL is the best hope for many American cattle producers. One report suggests that the impact of COVID-19 on the livestock industry will lead to $13.6 billion in losses. This will only exacerbate the fact that cattle producers have been facing some of the lowest commodity prices in recent history.
Meanwhile, allegations of price-fixing and collusion among the four largest meatpackers are reaching new tensions during the crisis. According to one report, as consumers bought out supermarket meat cases in a panic buying spree, wholesale beef prices spiked within 10 days as retailers attempted to replenish shelves. Meanwhile, cattle prices fell 10% to 15% across the board. A number of industry stakeholders, as well as Nebraska Senator Deb Fischer, are calling on the president to investigate potential antitrust implications.
If you want to know where your meat came from, buying local is the best bet
One of the best ways to feel confident about the origin of your meat is to source it directly from a local farmer. During the pandemic, farmers have been doubling efforts to meet the increasing local demand for direct purchases of meat and other food products. Due to the pandemic, many small-scale farmers who traditionally rely on restaurant and foodservice sales have surpluses of food available to purchase. To find farmers in your area review this list or search Eat Wild and Local Harvest.
Supporting local farmers and ranchers also helps build a new market for meat producers who want to break up with the conventional system.
Lauren Manning, Esq., LL.M., is a cattle farmer, an agricultural law professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, food journalist, and contributor to the forthcoming documentary and book project Sacred Cow: The environmental, nutritional, and ethical case for better meat.