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December 2, 2001 The Honorable Tom Harkin The Honorable Richard G. Lugar The Honorable Charles W. Stenholm Dear Chairmen Harkin and
Combest, Senator Lugar, and Representative Stenholm:
The U.S. cattle industry invested considerable time, effort, and money
to improve, promote, and advertise its finished product – U.S. beef.
The U.S. cattle industry now needs the ability to identify its beef
from among the growing volume of beef supplied by its foreign competitors.
The ability to differentiate domestic beef from foreign beef is
necessary to ensure that U.S. cattle producers have a competitive, open market
that allows consumer demand signals to reach domestic cattle producers.
We strongly support the mandatory country-of-origin labeling language
passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Specifically, we strongly support the following key elements:
1) Mandatory country of origin labeling for beef, lamb, pork, fish,
fruits, vegetables, and peanuts. 2) Only meat from animals exclusively born,
raised, and slaughtered in the United States shall be eligible for a USA
label. 3) The USDA Quality Grade
Stamp cannot be used on imported meat.
Several importing and processing industry groups are aggressively
working to weaken the Senate Farm Bill’s mandatory country-of-origin
labeling language. They want to
eliminate the exclusively born, raised, and slaughtered definition of origin.
They also want to exempt ground beef from among the meat covered by the
legislation. We strongly oppose
any such changes as they would severely impair the competitiveness of U.S.
cattle producers.
Since 1987, the U.S. cattle industry has invested millions toward a
mandatory check-off program to research, promote, and advertise beef.
It is now time to take the next logical step of requiring
country-of-origin labeling so consumers can identify the very beef U.S. cattle
producers have worked so hard to promote. Proper labeling of beef will benefit all check-off
contributors. The identification
of meat in the marketplace is also becoming increasingly important given the
global threat of bio-terrorism. Without
labeling, we cannot segregate or recall meat now flowing through our food
distribution channels if a contamination or outbreak were announced by any one
of our many trading partners. Finally,
consumers deserve to have accurate country-of-origin labeling so they can make
informed purchasing decisions. We respectfully urge you to fully support the mandatory country-of-origin language passed by the Senate Agriculture Committee and now included in the Senate Farm Bill. Sincerely, AlabamaAlabama
Cattlemen’s Association
CaliforniaAmador/El
Dorado/Sacramento Cattlemen’s Association ColoradoBent-Prowers
Cattle and Horsegrowers’ Association FloridaSeminole Tribe of Florida,
Inc.
GeorgiaGeorgia
Cattlemen’s Association
IdahoBonneville
County Cattlemen’s Association KansasKansas
Cattlemen’s Association MinnesotaMinnesota
Cattlemen’s Association
MississippiMississippi
Cattlemen’s Association
MissouriMissouri
Stockgrower’s Association
MontanaBaker
Cow Belles NebraskaNebraska Livestock
Marketing Association
NevadaNevada
Cattlemen’s Association New JerseyNew Jersey Angus
Association
New MexicoNew Mexico Cattlegrowers’ Association New YorkNew York Beef Producers’ Association North CarolinaNorth Carolina
Cattlemen’s Association
North DakotaCattlemen’s
Weighing Association OregonBaker
County Livestock Association PennsylvaniaPennsylvania Cattlemen’s Association South DakotaBlack
Hills Angus Association TennesseeTennessee Cattlemen's
Association
TexasIndependent
Cattlemen’s Association of Texas
UtahUtah
Cattlemen’s Association
VirginiaVirginia
Cattlemen’s Association
WashingtonAdams
County Cattlemen’s Association Wyoming Big
Horn Cattlemen’s Association National OrganizationsAmerican
Indian Livestock Association |
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This page was last updated on Monday, April 06, 2009. |
