Johnson Statement on Voluntary COOL

Johnson Statement on Voluntary COOL

House Panel Could Approve Change Late Monday

U.S. Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) today released the following statement regarding House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee movement toward support of voluntary Country-of-Origin labeling (COOL) for beef:

"I am deeply concerned that House leadership may include a repeal of mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) for beef in their agriculture spending measure. Last year, we were able to keep mandatory COOL for all covered commodities during consideration of the so-called 'omnibus' spending bill. The producers and consumers that contacted Congress showed the overwhelming support that COOL maintains, not only as a consumer choice issue, but as a marketing tool for producers."

In January, Johnson introduced bipartisan legislation to keep the U.S.-Canadian border closed to imports of live Canadian cattle and to close the border to boxed beef until mandatory country-of-origin labeling is implemented.

Johnson, the author of the country-of-origin labeling provision included in the 2002 Farm Bill, expressed concerns to USDA and the White House in letters dated January 3, following confirmation of the last case of Mad Cow in Canada.

Mandatory country-of-origin labeling is scheduled to be implemented by September 2006.

http://johnson.senate.gov/~johnson/releases/200505/2005516B13.html