Tag: COOL

Letter from Langdon: Playing Fetch

Richard Oswald

While farmers chase the next crop, the agriculture game has changed. International corporations have reduced their own risk by passing it along to farmers. “Free” trade (like the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership), seed patents, and contract farming for hogs and chickens are some of the ways Big Ag has standardized a once-diverse industry. Photo by Nate Kauffman Playing fetch at Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine State Forest. Playing fetch with a Labrador is a little like farming. I throw the Read More …

Editorial on COOL — We really do have the best government that money can buy.

Mike Callicrate

by Gilles Stockton, Grass Range, MT Will Rogers is credited with first saying “we have the best Congress that money can buy.” I wish he hadn’t, that way it could have been me. The House vote to repeal Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) shows just who 69% of the Representatives work for, and here is a hint – it ain’t you and me. If your Congressperson was among the 10 Republicans and 121 Democrats who voted to uphold Read More …

This is so NOT COOL!

Mike Callicrate

Download the poster to print and share! Groups Criticize Ag Secretary for Allowing Checkoff-funded NCBA to Attack COOL Washington, D.C. – In a graphic issued today, R-CALF USA and the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) criticize Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for not doing his job to end the abuses to the national Beef Checkoff Program (Beef Checkoff) perpetrated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA). The NCBA receives over 80 percent of its funding from the Beef Checkoff Read More …

WTO, COOL, TPP – The Alphabet Soup of the Loss of National Sovereignty

Mike Callicrate

By Gilles Stockton If you were not concerned about our loss of national sovereignty before, you should be now, following the World Trade Organization (WTO) recent ruling against the Country of Origin Labeling (COOL). Although the WTO acknowledges that the United States has the right to label, and even though Canada has their own version of COOL, the WTO cites a very minor excuse to deny American consumers from knowing the origin of their meat. The labeling requirement, Read More …

A Big Controversy is Brewing

Mike Callicrate

October 8, 2014 For Immediate Release A Big Controversy is Brewing Secretary Vilsack has announced that he will take summary action to reform the Beef Checkoff. NCBA has dubbed the initiative “train wrecking the Checkoff”. Not surprising since the change may threaten their gravy train. The Checkoff represents more than 80% of their total revenue. The Checkoff program is a dismal failure which has been made into an NCBA slush fund. Until Vilsack’s proposal is more clearly defined, Read More …

Like GM, Food Companies Place Profits Over Safety and Security

Mike Callicrate

Our nation’s food system is at risk! By Mike Callicrate Putting people at risk to save a buck isn’t isolated to the automotive industry. In today’s global economy, where the biggest cheater wins, foreign imports of beef and the recent return of Pink Slime add insult to injury for the few remaining independent producers and meat processors struggling to survive. Food companies from Walmart to Chipotle to the mom and pop restaurants that rely on a Sysco food Read More …

WHERE IS THE BEEF?

Mike Callicrate

“The Segregation Cost Arguments Do Not Hold Water” By: J. Dudley Butler Some opponents of COOL seem to use the term commingling as a synonym for segregation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Meat is commingled. Cattle are segregated. COOL does not deal with live animals. It deals with the sale of commodities such as beef and pork at the retail level. The COOL statue does not allow commingling of covered retail products. The use of commingling Read More …

Ruling Upholding Meat Labeling Rule Vacated to Consider First Amendment Issue

Mike Callicrate

Reproduced with permission from The United States Law Week, 82 U.S.L.W. 1479 (Apr. 8, 2014). Copyright 2014 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit April 4 agreed to rehear en banc a March 28 panel ruling that a group of meat industry representatives was unlikely to succeed in their challenge to a rule revising meat labeling requirements and therefore were not entitled to a preliminary injunction against Read More …