Despite interest among cattle activists, a return to mandatory country-of-origin labels on beef “is not going to happen unless we want to do a billion-dollar litigation damage with Mexico and Canada,” said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday. At the same time, Perdue said he was in “serious discussions” over an alternative label that would be voluntary.
“We’re trying to thread the needle honestly, with transparency, so the consumer knows what they get and [we] help the producer feel they get value for cattle that have been grown and processed here,” said Perdue. That might be achieved by a voluntary label that identified beef as being “slaughtered and processed” in America, he said. “I think that’s a better remedy.”
Groups such as R-CALF USA are pressing for a revival of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL). Congress repealed COOL in 2015 following a WTO decision that ruled the labels were a barrier to cattle and hog trade with Canada and Mexico. The WTO ruled the U.S. neighbors could impose $1.01 billion in retaliatory tariffs if the United States kept its labeling scheme, which used such phrases as “born, slaughtered, and processed in USA.”
U.S. meatpackers and food companies supported the repeal of mandatory COOL. U.S. farm groups were split on the issue.