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Bullard says lawsuit 2nd step trying to get COOL back

The head of R-CALF USA says his group is in the second step of trying to restore Country of Origin Labeling for beef and pork coming into the U.S. since Congress repealed the “COOL” law in late 2015.

R-CALF has filed suit in federal court in Washington state against the U.S. Department of agriculture, to force the agency to require foreign meat imports maintain import labels all the way to store shelves.

Bill Bullard says USDA regulations allow beef and pork from other countries to be classified and labeled as “domestic” products, a violation of “the text” of the Meat Inspection Act, which is part of the lawsuit, “It’s taken some time to do the research and to find a way that we could legally support Country of Origin Labeling and bring it back.”

Bullard says his group is pleased that the USDA has suspended some meat imports from Brazil but, in his words, “should have done it three months ago.” An R-CALF white paper, issued earlier this year, demanding a ban on Brazilian beef until COOL is reinstated. He says the third step is for Congress to pass legislation to reinstate country of origin labeling for the benefit of consumers and farmers and ranchers.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association insists that COOL should NOT be mandatory and says there is no economic benefit from the failed law.