For Immediate Release: June 27, 2024
Contact: R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard
Phone: 406-252-2516; r-calfusa@r-calfusa.com
Please find below R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary that discusses two initiatives underway in Washington, D.C., to help America’s cattle producers. It is in two formats: written and audio. Anyone is welcome to use it for broadcasting or reporting.
MCOOL and EID Eartags
Commentary by Bill Bullard, CEO, R-CALF USA
There are two important initiatives underway in Washington, D.C., to help America’s cattle farmers and ranchers. One is intended to ensure that mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) for beef is included in the 2024 Farm Bill. The other is to ensure that the Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) new rule that mandates the use of electronic identification (EID) eartags is overturned. Let’s discuss both, but first…
Despite all the rhetoric and propaganda to the contrary, there are two separate and distinct industries that comprise the multisegmented beef supply chain. You have the cattle industry, the supplier of live cattle; and you have the beef industry, the buyer of live cattle and manufacturer and seller of beef. These industries sell different kinds of products: The cattle industry sells live cattle, and the beef industry sells beef.
Now, of course, there’s an exception and it includes live cattle producers who sell beef directly to consumers by retaining ownership of the animal and the carcass all the way through the beef supply chain. But this is the exception rather than the rule, although we recognize it is a growing segment and we wish that growing segment well.
But back to the general rule where the two industries are separate and distinct. Since one industry sells (the cattle industry) and one industry buys (the beef industry), there is a natural antagonism between the two: the cattle industry wants to sell high, and the beef industry wants to buy low. We have a name for this natural antagonism, we call it competition.
Because we know the economic interests of the two distinct industries are different, it’s no surprise that their policy interests are different as well. Here’s two examples: MCOOL for beef and mandatory EID eartags for cattle.
Now the beef industry opposes MCOOL while fully supporting mandatory EID eartags. It’s kind of funny that their argument about MCOOL is that they don’t want the government involved in their business, so they oppose MCOOL. But they do want mandatory EID because they think it’s the only way to convince all those cattle producers to comply.
Unsurprisingly, this is the same reason they support the mandatory beef checkoff program…it’s a mindset in which they believe that live cattle producers just don’t know what’s best for them.
Well, cattle producers disagree strongly. They know the only way beef sold in grocery stores will bear a country-of-origin label is if Congress requires that all beef, both imported and domestic, must bear a country-of-origin label. You see, mandatory country of origin labeling is a mandate on the beef industry that sells beef, not on the cattle industry that sells cattle. And, it is the cattle industry and consumers that benefit from such a mandate.
But the EID mandate is a mandate on the cattle industry that benefits the beef industry because the beef industry thinks it can export more beef if every cattle producer is forced to use an EID eartag. This gives the beef industry the ability to claim the beef it sells is traceable. Now there’s a value to this “traceable” claim but the beef industry doesn’t want to pay cattle producers for this additional value, and so they went to the U.S. Department of Agriculture knowing the agency also wants to mandate the use of EID.
So, what a mess we’re in! But there are a few champions in Congress that understand the differences between the cattle and beef industries, and they’re willing to help the cattle farmers and ranchers whose political clout pales in comparison to the powerful beef industry.
Here’s what our champions are doing:
First, we have Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) circulating a bipartisan letter among his colleagues urging them to join in the request to include mandatory country of origin labeling for beef in the 2024 Farm Bill. You can go to the website www.rounds.senate.gov/mcool2024 and see if your two senators are on this important letter. If they are not, please give them a call and urge them to join Sen. Rounds’ MCOOL letter.
Second, we have the entire congressional delegation from Wyoming – a state with lots of cattle but no big beef packers, leading a resolution of disapproval that, when passed by Congress and signed by the President, will overturn the USDA’s EID eartag mandate. Led by Congresswoman Harriet Hageman and Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso (all R-WY), the House version of the resolution has 16 cosponsors. The House resolution is H.J. Res. 167. We urge you to call both your senators and your representative to urge them to support the resolution to overturn USDA’s EID eartag mandate.
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R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary educates and informs both consumers and producers about timely issues important to the U.S. cattle and sheep industries and rural America.
Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF USA) is the largest producer-only trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries. For more information, visit www.r-calfusa.com or call (406) 252-2516.
