Smith’s COOL Proposal Receives Support
A bill being sponsored by Rep. Frank Smith, D-Poplar, is receiving support from the Montana Farmers Union.
The proposal seeks to require a placard of County of Origin on beef or pork products. Information on beef and pork products will include “Born, raised and processed in the USA.”
A letter from the Montana Farmers Union notes, “Many consumers may be fine buying imported beef, and that should be their right. However, what is not right is buying Brazilian beef while being led to believe it was born, raised and processed in the USA. You might think that it would be a no-brainer to pass a MT COOL bill in the Legislature of the State of Montana, where cattle is the most important industry, but it is not. The 2019 Legislature refused to consider COOL.”
The letter continues, “It is hard to explain why individual legislators don’t want consumers to know the origin of their beef, but that is in face what happened. Clearly, COOL is not in the interests of multinational corporations who prop up this rigged system that cheats family ranchers and everyday consumers with ‘legally fraudulent’ labels. The bill, if it isn’t killed by foreign meatpacking interests, will ask retailers to make a reasonable effort to display a sign at the meat case with country of origin information for beef and pork.”
Prior to this year’s session, Smith said that the measure failed last time because some legislators felt there was a better federal plan.
“I don’t see why they’ve been dragging their feet,” Smith said. “I believe people want to know where their food comes from.”
