Comment Period Still Open on COOL Proposal

The National Farmers Union submitted comments Monday supporting the proposed rule to strengthen the Country-of-Origin Labeling regulations. NFU President Roger Johnson says farmers, ranchers and livestock producers take pride in making high quality products available to consumers to then make educated purchasing decisions at the grocery store. Johnson says consumers continue to demand more information about their food – so it’s critical for strong regulatory changes to be made to the COOL regulation to promote U.S. products to consumers. The proposed rule requires each specific production step be labeled with the country in which it takes place. It also would eliminate comingling allowances for muscle cuts. Johnson says more specific accurate labels – along with tightening up current comingling requirements – will directly respond to the problem the WTO found with current COOL rules. NFU is pleased by the proposed rule and appreciates USDA’s work to identify ways to not only fulfill obligations established by the WTO – but also strengthening the information available to consumers. The comment period on this proposal ends April 11th. Anyone can comment on the proposal at www.regulations.gov.