Giving a cold shoulder to C.O.O.L.

The election is over; the government has just realized we have been in a recession since last fall (2007); farm commodity prices have fallen 60 percent (yet food prices have yet to decline); and the U.S. Treasury is bailing out every mismanaged bank, corporation and/or business in this country. What a place and time to live!

The new administration campaigned for more than 20 months for change. Let’s hope they mean it and start with the government enforcing laws on the books and not creating needless chaos by implementing confusing legislation such as C.O.O.L.

C.O.O.L. (Country-of-origin-labeling), as Bob Elliott pointed out in his Oct. 11 column, originated in the 2002 Farm Bill. Originally, the intent was simple: Inform consumers where their food came from. As usual, the government spent six more years “tinkering” with the concept and now has created a bookkeeping and bureaucratic mess.

C.O.O.L. is not now, nor was ever intended to be a food safety issue. If the government was truly concerned about the consumer, they would hire more meat inspectors to monitor processing facilities and imported meat instead of cutting the inspection force by 60 percent. C.O.O.L. labeling regulations were written only for meat processors and retailers with perishable purchases more than $230,000. Obviously this doesn’t cover every source of meat.

Another problem with C.O.O.L. is that it doesn’t cover every type of meat. Processed foods are not required to be labeled, nor are restaurants required to notify consumers of the origin of their steaks, chops or chicken.

On the producer side, we will have to fill out one of three affidavits and/or C.O.O.L. declarations. The first is a continuous declaration to be kept on file by the market, stocker, feeder or slaughter plant until revoked. The second is a supporting declaration of origin from producers with a continuous affidavit on file. The third statement covers direct transactions to packers from producers, marketing business and feeders. Packers are required to maintain these records for at least one year, and they must be able to obtain records from their immediate suppliers within that one-year period. All cow-calf producers are subject to this verification process as well. What a great Christmas present this year. More government paperwork.