CO Bill to Reinstate COOL Defeated

CO Bill to Reinstate COOL Defeated

In recent weeks, a Colorado HR17-1234 a bill that would have reinstated country of origin information for Colorado consumers by requiring a placard to denote origin located next to beef sold in retail stores — was defeated.

Colorado Cattlemen's Association Executive Vice President Terry Fankhauser says this wasn't the preferred method moving forward.

Fankhauser: "People perceive as being safe and most of it being U.S. product, but what they are wiling to pay more for are these other claims like local or natural. So that's where people from a business tenant have invested their resources — even proponents of COOL — not actually in putting a U.S. label on there. With that said, I think we've got to figure out how to address some labeling for origin and if it is through more local and regional labels that is fine. So we need to be transparent and honest with our consumers and we also need to be responsible to the producers of this product and not put burdens on them. That are going to cost the consumer and the live cattle producer more money because the costs will be passed forward to the end-buyer and backward through reduced purchase prices to the producers. We just can't stand for that. We just can't. So there is an answer to this. We are committed to finding some solutions. We are not just going to jump in and say,'Anything that puts a U.S. label on is the right thing.' We deserve, as an industry, better than that."

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