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Congress faces decision on COOL

As Congress returns to work this week, one of the looming agricultural issues is what to do about country-of-origin-labeling (COOL).

The House of Representatives has voted to fully repeal COOL, but the Senate has been at an impasse with some Senators backing full repeal and others favoring establishment of a voluntary labeling program.

Rod Gray, a rancher from Harrison, Nebraska and a director of the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, says it’s important to keep COOL in place, even if it is voluntary.

Gray says today’s consumers want to know where their food is coming from.

“With the opening of Canada and Mexico coming back in and not being identified—and the possibility of it coming out of South America, and even Africa now—we just feel the consumer has shown a lot of interest in knowing where their food sources are coming from,” Gray says, “and this is the only opportunity we’re going to be able to give them.”

The World Trade Organization is expected to release, by December 7^th, its ruling on the level of COOL retaliation to which Canada and Mexico are entitled.

AUDIO: Rod Gray