In presidential campaigns, election issues tend to separate interests. But in agriculture, at least one issue has been a uniter, not a divider.
In a first, the mainstream Livestock Marketing Association and National Meat Association co-sponsored an event with the progressive, traditionally anti-agribusiness National Farmers Union that focused on building an agreement on procedures and language with regard to the industry’s implementation of USDA’s mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) requirement for meat products, which is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 30.
In late August in Kansas City, the three organizations brought together 70 representatives from 30 industry organizations and companies, including the American Meat Institute, American Farm Bureau Federation, National Farmers Organization, R-CALF USA, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Greater Omaha Packing Co., John Morrell Co., and Smithfield Beef Group, among several others, to reach consensus.
LMA president Bobby Smith called the gathering "unprecedented." Commenting for MEATPOULTRY.com, LMA director of information John McBride added: "This is the kind of issue that calls for this kind of cooperation. I’ve been in this industry for 32 years, and I can’t recall an issue stemming from a government directive that’s got such wide-ranging implications. It affects every single link in the chain. It’s kind of uncharted territory."
The organizations and companies agreed in Kansas City on three statements regarding Country of Origin declarations, according to LMA:
- A continuous country of origin affidavit/declaration that will allow producers to make a continuous origin affidavit that would be kept on file by the market, stocker, feeder or slaughter plant, until revoked by the affidavit’s signer;
- A supporting declaration of origin for specific transactions involving livestock from producers with a continuous affidavit on file, or as a "stand alone" affidavit/declaration related to a specific transaction. This language could be used on check-in sheets, invoices and/or other sales documents.
- A statement covering direct transactions to packers from producers, marketing businesses and feeders. The COOL law requires packers to maintain country of origin records for one year, and they must be able to obtain records from their immediate suppliers within that period, to substantiate COOL claims. This statement says the livestock supplier will maintain those records for one year from date of delivery of the livestock, and will make them available, as required by the COOL law.
Source: MeatPoultry.com