Cory Booker on Country of Origin Labeling and Rancher Protections

Enforcement of the Packers and Stockyards Act

• 🏛️ The Packers and Stockyards Act has not been enforced due to a belief that markets self-heal, which has decimated the independent livestock industry.
• 📜 To provide additional protections, the US Department of Agriculture needs to finalize rules for the Act, which were initiated in the last administration.
• ⚖️ Full implementation and enforcement of these rules are crucial to prevent harmful buying power exerted by an oligopolistic market structure and to attract new entrants.

Abuses Within the Beef Checkoff Program

• 🐄 The beef checkoff program, established in the 85 farm bill, collects tens of millions of dollars annually for beef promotion and research through taxes on independent producers.
• 📢 Funds are being channeled through organizations that lobby on public policy issues contrary to independent producers' interests.
• 🚫 Independent producers are forced to pay taxes that are then used to lobby against their interests, such as mandatory country labeling for beef and trade agreements.

Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL)

• 🗺️ Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) is essential for fair competition by providing symmetry of information between buyers and sellers.
• 🕵️ Without COOL, multinational meat packers can import beef, mask its origin, and pass it off as domestic product, even relabeling foreign meat with a "Product of the USA" sticker.
• ⚠️ Since the repeal of mandatory COOL for beef and pork in 2015, regulations have allowed foreign products to be imported, relabeled, and sold at domestic prices, deceiving consumers.
• 🗓️ While a voluntary remedy is set for January 1, 2026, it will not require packers to label foreign products, leading to a continued increase in foreign beef being misrepresented as domestic.
• 🇺🇸 Consumers deserve to know where their beef comes from and under what country's food safety and production regime it was produced.