[Jacob-list] Mandatory ID

[Neal and Louise Grose]

      Conference committee delays mandatory COOL 
        
      by Pete Hisey on 11/1/2005 for Meatingplace.com 
        

     
      Mandatory country-of-origin labeling will be delayed at least two more years after conferees in a joint Senate/House Agriculture Appropriations Conference Committee approved a House measure backed by the meat-processing industry and opposed by many producers. Although mandatory COOL is not dead, it can be enacted for red meat no earlier than Sept. 30, 2008.

      Several senators vehemently opposed the inclusion of the delay, with Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Conrad Burns (R-Mont), Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Larry Craig (R-Idaho) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) refusing to sign the resultant bill. 

      Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, which has strongly supported COOL, charged that Tyson Fresh Meats influenced the legislation by sending a letter to cattle producers stating they would be required to "provide third party documentation, a legal affidavit with each load attesting to origin, access to your records by your packer and third party and indemnification for liability" if COOL were implemented by its original 2006 date. "None of the requirements are either required or authorized by the COOL law, and this is a blatant attempt by Tyson to scare U.S. producers into supporting Tyson's self interests," said Randi Beer, chairman of R-CALF's COOL committee.
     
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