11/04/05 M-COOL in the long term?

It was last year that Congress adopted the implementation of mandatory Country of Origin labeling. So far that has not happened. And the way Congress is going, it may not happen any time soon. It was also in 2004, soon after Congress approved mandatory C.O.O.L. that another piece of legislation was adopted that would delay implementation for two years. Then as Congress this year debated the 2006 agriculture appropriations bill, M-C.O.O.L. implementation was also the subject of debate. The House early in the budget process approved a measure that would delay implementation of M-C.O.O.L. until 2007. The Senate wanted mandatory C.O.O.L. to take effect in 2006, and kept that stance until a compromise was reached late last month. The compromise was to delay implementation for another two years. So unless some form of legislation comes forth between now and then, M-C.O.O.L. will have to wait until 2008. That has drawn the curiosity of Dave Frederickson of the National Farmer's Union. FREDRICKSON: I really find it odd that it is taking this country longer to put a label on its food that it took to put a man on the moon. And as an M-C.O.O.L. supporter, especially for meat products, Frederickson is irate that implementation was held captive by the political process. FREDRICKSON: Once again, a deal has been struck behind closed doors by the majority leadership of the committees with no recourse for individual members of Congress except for an up or down vote on the overall agricultural spending measure. But the delay is fine for supporters of a voluntary C.O.O.L program, like Jim McAdams of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, who admitted in a recent debate with counterparts from R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A. that they have a simple strategy & delay M-C.O.O.L. implementation to death. MCADAMS: We've been delaying this year by year. And the plan is to delay it until we get enough of a coalition together to craft legislation that would meet the needs and the desires. What we want to do is have a labeling law that allows producers to benefit without undue onerous burdens, and would give the consumers the information they would like to have. But M-C.O.O.L. supporters like Bill Bullard of R-C.A.L.F. U.S.A. say the issue of mandatory country of origin labeling for meat will continue to be pushed by its supporters. BULLARD: The opponents won the battle, and have delayed the implementation of C.O.O.L. But because this issue is so critically important to the future of the independent cattle producers in the United States, we will continue working until we get this important law implemented.