Staying COOL with the Farm Bill

[BvBPL]

So the US Congress is actually working on a farm bill for the first time in several years. Much of the news coverage has been about the end of direct payments in favor of crop insurance. However, I’d like to discuss regulation that affects not farmers, but ranchers.

So there’s this regulation in the farm bill, country of origin labeling, or COOL. It requires that meat be labeled by its country of origin. So you go into the market and you can tell where the meat is from.

From a consumer level, that sounds inoffensive, right? Little sticker saying “product of USA” or whatever on the meat.

Before getting too much further, I’d like people’s opinion about country of origin meat labeling as consumers. Have you ever chosen one piece of meat over another because of its country of origin? Would you pay a premium or otherwise change your spending habits to buy domestic, or imported, meat?

So think about that for a minute. I bet most of you will say you aren’t particularly selective in choosing meats based on country of origin.

For me, I prefer domestic lamb. I’m less committed to domestic beef. Frankly there are view times that an individual market gives me the option to choose different countries of origin. It is not unusual for my local market to simply put up a sign that says “product of USA and Canada” and leave it at that so as a consumer I don’t have a lot of chance to be selective based on country of origin.

Okay, so that’s the consumer side of things. Now let’s examine the producers’ side.

Ranchers are upset that COOL is staying in the farm bill. They had pushed to have COOL repealed, but that effort has apparently failed. The primary concern that ranchers have about the farm bill is that COOL forces them to segregate their livestock based on animals’ country of birth. So a rancher buying calves from Canada, the US, and Argentina needs to keep the calves separate throughout their time with the farmer. Then the purchasing slaughterhouse needs to segregate the cattle and the resulting carcasses. Then the butcher needs to keep the primal cuts separate based on country of origin. So there’s a lot of potential overhead and bookkeeping involved.

Now you might say that the burden of overhead involved in segregating livestock is relatively small and as such the ranchers should put up or shut up. And you might have a point there, but if I am accurate in my guess that most consumers are not selective based on country of origin labeling.

So there’s that, but there’s also the question as to whether or not COOL accurately reflects information. Going back to the rancher that has purchased calves from Canada, the USA, and Argentina, if the rancher buys a calf from Argentina at one month of age and then takes it back to the USA to be raised for the next twenty months, is the country of origin really Argentina or is it the USA where the cow spent most of its life? What about if it was slaughter for veal at three months of age?

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I would (and do) avoid agricultural products from China and other heavily polluted countries if given a choice.

Also, this isn't new IIRC. They have been doing it for years.

 

[GenMarshall]

As a consumer, I do want to have the right to know where my foodstuff comes from (just the raw stuff like fruits, vegetables, and meats).

 

[BvBPL]

I would (and do) avoid agricultural products from China and other heavily polluted countries if given a choice.

Yeah, China is an interesting case because they are pushing crap honey and the like on us. That said, there are few meat products coming from China to the US. (at least in your butcher's case. Canned and prepared meat products may be different.)

As a consumer, I do want to have the right to know where my foodstuff comes from (just the raw stuff like fruits, vegetables, and meats).

Okay, but does that actually change how you spend your dollar?

Also, this isn't new IIRC. They have been doing it for years.

COOL for meats has been in force in the USA for twelve years. So, yeah, years but not decades.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

China sends a lot of frozen/canned fish products. But yeah, I can't think of too many fresh meat products from there.

 

[KMRblue1027]

I have a strong preference towards imported ham over domestic. I basically never buy American ham anymore because it has no fat in it any more.

 

[Cutlass]

Seems to me that the country the livestock was raised and slaughtered and processed in is more important than the place of birth. So from that perspective, I think the ranchers have a point.

 

[peter grimes]

I guess I'm an outlier.

I definitely make choices based on location / origin. If I see catfish from Louisiana against Cid from Maine, I choose the closer food. My reasoning is that there's less transport energy in closer food, and I learned a long time ago that spending your dollars as close to home as possible makes for a really strong and vibrant community.

It's one of those 'small steps' that doesn't have any effect in isolation, but in aggregate can be very strong.

Regarding the timing of when the carcass should get the label, I honestly don't know. Why not go full FSC and break down the contribution of everyone everywhere? Barcodes, rfids, and big data + NSA = full spectrum awareness. I'm only half joking, honestly.

 

[BvBPL]

Peter Grimes's points above about local food raise an interesting point. As stated, meat labeling only requires a country of origin. For the USA, that's a wide net. Most markets in the US wouldn't or couldn't put a regional designation for the source of their meat unless it is supplied by a specific producer (I'm thinking here that I know the bison I buy from my local market comes from Nebraska, or wherever, because that's what the label says and its the only bison for sale at my market).

If your concerned about the transportation costs of your food, this makes it difficult to assess what is the best meat if you have only country of origin labeling. Living in New England it is quite possible that beef from Canada may be more local than beef from California.

Actually, in 2009 Canada challenged, in the WTO, US's COOL regulations on exactly those grounds, among others. In 2011, the WTO ruled in favor of Canada. Not that it changed anything.

Tangentially related, I think people should frequent local butchers rather than supermarkets. Your local butcher can cut to order and can probably tell you a lot more about your meat than a clerk at a supermarket. I was perturbed when I discovered that a local supermarket didn't cut and package their own meats; this caused me to switch to another supermarket that had a proper butcher on staff.

 

[peter grimes]

This is one of the bizarre cases where living in a large city can actually make some things much easier when compared to my friends who live in typical suburban and rural areas in New England.

NYC has an extensive GreenMarket program - at any time there are between 23 and 68 weekly farmer's markets operating in the 5 boroughs. The rules for vendors are somewhat flexible, but basically the food has to be grown within 250 miles. Exceptions are made for certain things, like fish, flowers, wine:

Spoiler huge image :

Contrast this with our good friends who live in Western Massachusetts - in a rural area. Many of the farm stands are selling produce or meat products that are from Texas or California, and they have to be really careful about what they select if they're trying to buy locally. And this is in a state that has a really robust "buy local" program!

Going to the supermarket is pretty much the antithesis of knowing where your food comes from. Supermarket food is supplied by industrial management firms, using industrial logistics, sourcing food that can tolerate the thousands of miles of transportation these supply chains require.

When I hear about E. coli outbreaks I don't worry much. We don't eat out very often, and our veggies tend to come from Long Island. I'm grossed out by grit in food - I always assume it's cow effluent, so I'm very rigorous in washing our food. My wife calls me obsessive, one of the few things she says I'm obsessive about that I don't take offense to

Speaking of sourcing from specific producers, we actually do know the farms that most of our stuff comes from. The price for veggies isn't much at all - definitely on par with supermarket food. But meat costs a lot more. And so, we wind up eating a lot less. That's sort of a win-win for us. Plus, when we do have a meaty dinner it's a special occasion, so we enjoy it more than we would if it was just another pork chop night. Can't believe i just wrote that

On the downside, I get really annoyed when we just spent ~$10-15 per plate on a meat meal and it's disappointing. First world problems, I guess.

 

[El_Machinae]

Wow. This does make everything more complicated. The fact that animals are shipped during their lives really can complicate issues. And if a calf was 80 pounds when it was from Canada and is 800 lbs when it's slaughtered, how can you seriously say it's "from" Canada?

 

[dutchfire]

I always ask for a long-form birth certificate before I buy meat.

Serious answer: I don't really care about the country of origin, as long as it's not some really crappy place (like China, which has pollution issues as hobbs mentioned). Made in the EU would be sufficient for me.

So a rancher buying calves from Canada, the US, and Argentina needs to keep the calves separate throughout their time with the farmer.

I thought most cows (or are those only milk cows) have some identifier in their ear. So you just need a list with identifiers and country of origin. Sounds fine to me.

 

[really]

I thought most cows (or are those only milk cows) have some identifier in their ear. So you just need a list with identifiers and country of origin. Sounds fine to me.

Here in the EU they are - I'm not sure about elsewhere?

 

[Hygro]

I like to prioritize local meats and diary, particularly because we have some really lekker options (multiple raw milk brands nearby for example). BvBPL the way you describe it makes it sound like a terrible burden until it strikes me that you're talking about a level of meat production that I think we should be cutting back to begin with.

 

[Farm Boy]

Of all the crap the Farm Bill is likely to have or not have in it this time, this doesn't seem like an issue that actually means anything. I mean, end customers might think it does, so that's nice for them. Grain has been having to put up with this sort of supply chain separation fun for the sake of fun when shipping to Europe for decades, also for reasons of competition that the politicians will lie to you about and tell you they aren't for reasons of competition. Worst case scenario this starts impacting shopping patterns on the east coast, the food chain figures out how to birth the animal in the "right" country, then ship it around however they want for gain, then have it wind up in the right place again for finishing. Yayyyy, red tape. They might actually get some useful mileage out of this without the unnecessary dance if they just required food from China to be labeled as food from China.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Hmm so anyone have anything to say about the cuts to the food stamp program that was in the farm bill? It wasn't a massive cut (IIRC) but it was still a cut.

 

[Berzerker]

This country wages a war on drugs and we're the biggest drug dealers on the planet and the farm programs make corn sugar cheap as hell so it ends up in all sorts of foods while health care and our waistlines balloon. If Congress was a company they'd be sued and doing time.

 

[Farm Boy]

And that's a good visual of why the Farm Bill is how it is folks.

No offense intended Mr. Zerker. Though I'm definitely for locking up some members of Congress.

Edit: Bah - trying for useful feedback. I think they cut about $8B over 10 years from food stamps. They're moving to income/revenue insurance from direct payments, that's nothing new, and those subsidies are written to be most effective for the largest producers. Also nothing new. COOL is a sideshow. Conservation funding isn't gutted, but it's scaled back. They'll make a fuss about restrictions on ploughing virgin lands and erosion control, but those are sideshows too, mostly, those issues aren't new when dealing with the various Departments of Agriculture. Especially not if you loop in state regulations side by side. We'll see what the Senate does.

 

[Gucumatz]

Who is proposing removing the COOL measure? JBS [A Brazilian firm] and other meat processing firms have been swallowing up American companies and shifting the "birthing" of meat away from the US for a while. Its an attempt at maintaining some of these US food processors power

 

[Bulldog Bats]

Yes, country affects how I spend my money, both for health issues (no seafood from gulf coast or west coast, no food from China, and I do prefer to "buy American" in general.

I agree that the definition of "origin" should be addressed, but if a rancher wants the "US" label, he will have to buy calfs demestically, which would keep more money in the country.

Some people may have a desire for certain meat for taste (New Zealand lamb for instance), but the packagers already have the option to put this on the label if they think it will help sales.