By: Rachel Dahl
One of the immediate questions surrounding the possible return of mandatory country-of-origin labeling is whether it could eventually become tied to electronic identification tags.
For ranchers who are wary of mandatory EID, that is not a small concern.
USDA's current electronic identification requirements were adopted under the Animal Disease Traceability program and apply to certain classes of cattle moving interstate, including sexually intact cattle 18 months and older, dairy cattle and cattle used for exhibition or rodeo. Most feeder cattle are not currently covered by the federal EID requirement.
Mandatory country-of-origin labeling, meanwhile, is aimed at telling consumers where their beef originated.
Under the previous MCOOL system, ranchers were not required to electronically tag every animal. USDA allowed cattle origin to be established through producer affidavits, transaction records and other documentation that followed cattle through the marketing chain.
But there is a potential overlap since USDA has previously recognized animal-identification systems as one method for verifying an animal's origin. And today the federal government has a far more developed electronic livestock traceability system than it did during the last major fight over country-of-origin labeling.
If USDA determines that mandatory labeling can be restored, producers will want to know exactly how an animal's origin will have to be documented.
R-CALF USA, which has strongly supported restoration of MCOOL, has also opposed federal mandatory EID requirements and has argued that the two policies should remain separate, creating an important dividing line in the debate.
For many ranchers, support for country-of-origin labeling does not mean support for a federal system capable of electronically tracking every animal.
As USDA begins its review, one of the most important questions may be not simply whether MCOOL returns, but what producers will be required to do on the ranch to make it work.
Photo Credit: Colette Busi