COOL Lawsuit Seeks Clarity in Marketplace

Several ranchers, and many in the beef industry filed a lawsuit in Spokane suing the U.S. Department of Agriculture and looking for a return of the Country-of-Origin Labeling, or COOL, rules to be reinstated.

President of the Cattle Producers of Washington Scott Nielsen said there are many times where cows are raised outside of the U.S. but processed here.

“And I think that when they co-mingle these other with ours and process them and ship them out and say, ‘There, they’re all the same’ we’re put at a terrible disadvantage because some of the rules and regulations that we have to operate by that some of the other countries don’t.”

Which could allow retailers to sell meat that might have been raised outside of the U.S. but make it look like it is U.S. beef.

Nielsen said that is disingenuous.

“The argument being that it came here and it was processed here, so it is. I don’t think consumers would agree with that or even if they would, I think they prefer to support an American, they prefer to support their neighbors.”

COOL was eliminated after the World Trade Organization ruled against the U.S. after Canada and Mexico said they were put at an unfair disadvantage.

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