IMPORTANCE
Mandatory country-of-origin meat labeling (COOL) imposes on the U.S. pork industry costs of tracking hogs and pork from farm to retail grocery store.

BACKGROUND
President Bush signed into law May 13, 2002, the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002, more commonly known as the 2002 Farm Bill, which included as one of its many provisions mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef, lamb, pork, fish, perishable agricultural commodities and peanuts. USDA’s Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) is responsible for regulating and enforcing the mandatory country-of-origin labeling regime. Mandatory COOL was championed by populist farm activist groups and their supporters in Congress as a means of reducing the flow of livestock and food products into the United States. The groups stated that their primary focus has been cattle from Mexico, cattle, beef, pigs and pork from Canada, fresh vegetables from Mexico, Central and South American and fish from Vietnam. COOL proponents concluded that the only way to stop the growth of or reduce imports in an era of ever-increasing free trade, especially in agriculture, was to impose additional costs in the name of consumer choice or protection. To date, seafood is the only industry that has been mandated to implement COOL. A study by the Food Marketing Institute found that the costs of implementing the seafood portion of COOL have been higher than the Agriculture Department predicted. USDA estimated that the first-year cost to retail stores would be $1,530 per store, the study said, but instead it has been $9,000 to $16,000.

NPPC POSITION
NPPC opposes mandatory country-of-origin labeling and is urging Congress to repeal the MCOOL provision of the 2002 Farm Bill for hogs and pork and replace it with a workable voluntary COOL program. Country of origin labeling, similar to other non-food safety issues, should be determined in the marketplace and driven by consumers’ willingness to pay for perceived added or discounted value. NPPC believes that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that U.S. consumers are concerned enough about the origin of pork products to pay a premium sufficient enough to financially support a mandatory COOL system. For non-seafood covered meat products, highly prescriptive voluntary guidelines are currently available from AMS. The fact that no eligible entity has voluntarily implemented country-of-origin labeling during the two-year, voluntary period prior to mandatory implementation is a testament to its complexity and costs.