BILLINGS, MT – R-CALF USA along with some of its members launched a petition urging the President and Congress to immediately pass Mandatory Country-of-Origin Labeling (MCOOL) for beef, pork and dairy products to strengthen national food security and help stimulate economic growth. The petition has gained an unprecedented number of signatures in a very short period of time and continues to gain new signatures rapidly. The petition can be viewed at www.DemandUSABeef.com.
R-CALF USA member Kerry Cramton, a Kansas cattle producer who started the Facebook group U.S. Grassroots Cattlemen & Cattlewomen, worked with R-CALF USA to initiate the petition. Cramton met with Cowboys for Trump founder Couy Griffin who is currently riding on horseback from his ranch in New Mexico to Washington, D.C. Cramton and Griffin announced the petition yesterday morning and Griffin hopes to discuss MCOOL with President Trump.
South Dakota native and Fox Nation Host Tomi Lahren tweeted the petition yesterday and is expected to do her next Monday’s upcoming Final Thoughts segment on it. Lahren is a longtime Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling advocate. Last fall she aired a special ‘American Ranchers’ on her Fox Nation show No Interruption. View the full episode here.
R-CALF USA led the victory for COOL in 2002, 2009 and again in 2013. Although beef suffered a setback in 2015, all fruit, vegetables, fish, chicken, goat, lamb and nuts are still required to be labeled as to where they are grown, produced, caught, or born, raised, and harvested.
“The difference between mandatory COOL and voluntary COOL is the inclusion of imports,” said R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard. “Mandatory COOL requires all beef and pork, imported and domestic, to be labeled as to where it was born, raised, and harvested; and where dairy products were originated, produced, sourced and processed.
“All U.S. cattle producers and consumers are encouraged to sign the petition at www.DemandUSABeef.com,” said Bullard. “For those that want to stay informed about MCOOL action alerts, they can sign up for that too on the petition. All provided information will not be shared and will be kept confidential.
The MCOOL Petition follows R-CALF USA’s recent launch of its new Website www.USABeef.org, a free platform for cattle ranchers and farmers who raise and sell cattle or beef that is exclusively USA born, raised, and harvested, directly to consumers. The site is growing daily and currently includes 301 farms, ranches and businesses from 40 states. Consumers can call the beef providers on this list to obtain beef produced in their state.
