Where’s the beef coming from?
Posted on Monday, October 6, 2008
Probably most of us who remember watching Gilligan's Island on TV also remember a commercial with a short-statured senior lady who demanded to know," Where's the Beef ?"
As of Oct. 1, she might be asking not where it is, but where is it from. As of that date, several products on the grocery store shelf will be required to be labeled with information regarding the origin of the product.
This Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL ) is a USDA marketing program mandated by the 2002 Farm Bill that requires retailers to notify their customers of the country of origin of beef (including veal ), goat meat, lamb, pork, poultry, fish and other perishable agricultural commodities.
Retailers, packers and their suppliers are mutually responsible for contributing the information necessary to meet the requirements of this new law.
This new system raises several questions in the minds of livestock producers and even fears of what this rule means in terms of their own record-keeping liabilities. Livestock producers are not directly regulated by the COOL law because livestock is not considered a covered commodity. However, only producers have first-hand knowledge concerning the origin of their animals. Definitive origin information must be provided to slaughter facilities so that meat products as covered commodities can be accurately labeled at retail. Livestock producers should be prepared to provide necessary country of origin documentation to their buyers.
Producers may use one of the following methods to comply with the COOL law and provide required country-of-origin information to buyers • Affidavits: Packers may rely upon producer affidavits to initiate claims. Affidavits must be made by someone having first-hand knowledge, and the affidavit must identify animals unique to the transaction.
• National Animal Identification System: Animals that are part of an identification system may rely on presence of an official ear tag and / or the presence of any accompanying animal markings, as applicable, to base origin claims. • USDA-approved Age Verification Programs: Participation in USDA Quality System Verification Programs, such as the USDA Process Verified Program and the Quality Systems Assessment Program that contain a source verification component, is also considered acceptable evidence to substantiate COOL claims. The Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission administrates the Arkansas Quality Systems Assessment Program.
For now, all livestock producers should maintain an annual herd inventory of the breeding animals on their farm. Identification of individual animals is not required. However, records of veterinary expenses, cattle sales slips, feed tickets, personal property assessments and those type records should be kept on file in case they are needed to prove that you are indeed in the business of producing livestock.
If you sell cattle directly to a packer or to another individual, you should complete the Producer Affidavit entitled "Continuous Affidavit of Country of Origin of Livestock for Direct Supplier Transactions to Packers. "These will likely begin showing up at local auction markets. You can download the affidavits at this Web site: http: // www. texascattleraisers. org / COOL / COOLAffidavits. htm.
For more information or help in obtaining an affidavit, feel free to contact the Cooperative Extension Service at 444-1755. We all have to do our part so we can answer the question "Where's the beef from ? "or whatever other fresh meat product is in question.
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