 July 19, 2007 |
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Reflections of a Rancher on COOL by Jay Miller, USCA Director and Founding Member. |
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| My name is Jay Miller and I am a 7th generation rancher from Washington, VA. The cattle business is a tough, yet very fulfilling way to make a living--one treasured by me and thousands across the country. When it comes to cattle production we take on the challenges of Mother Nature and changing markets. One thing we do not need to take on is the challenge of industry groups and politicians that talk out of both sides of their mouths. Politicians and industry groups tout free trade as a way for producers to get more for their product. Unfortunately, they have negotiated free trade agreements with more agriculture producing countries than with agriculture consuming countries and the U.S. agriculture trade surplus has gone from a $25 billion surplus in the mid 1990’s to a $4.5 billion deficit by 2005, with nearly 75% of the deficit being cattle and beef. I, along with thousands of ranchers, communicated this to both Congress and the Administration. I received various responses from politicians such as, “Well you need to be able to compete with other countries.” My response was, “I will compete with any country in the world, just level the playing field and let me identify my product through country of origin labeling (COOL).” Another politician responded with, “I just have to support this FTA, but I will help you by making sure your product gets labeled.” NAFTA and CAFTA passed and yet we still do not have COOL. Round one concluded of double-talk. The next round came when I was told that consumers really do not care where their food comes from, and if there were a value to a U.S. label then packers would be voluntarily labeling their products. I, along with thousands of other cattle producers, fought back attempts by these double-talking politicians to implement a “voluntary COOL” program. Round two of double-talk. Now the final round: Enough is enough. These double-talking industry groups and politicians have come up with a “fix” to COOL. Their arguments are plagued with Potomac Fever. A proposed COOL amendment created by these double-talking experts changes the “born, raised and slaughtered” provision to allow Mexican, Canadian, and other imported feeder steers, heifers, yearlings and breeding stock that are imported and not slaughtered immediately in America to be eligible for a U.S. label. Talk about a complete 180--they say that COOL only covers 8% of marketed products and now they are going to reduce it to 4-5%. What happened to consumers not caring? Well if you are a double-talking industry group or politician you don’t worry--red faced, you just trudge blindly forward. And now for the final straw, these groups argued that COOL paperwork is too burdensome and poultry and restaurants were exempt and they needed to “fix” that. So this current COOL amendment has a “fix”, but it does nothing new to address the paperwork situation or label poultry and restaurant food. Ranchers and honest elected officials have worked together and laid out a plan to label all non-marked animals as U.S. (imported live cattle are marked as to origin). The only thing these double-talking industry groups and politicians did is to commit the grandest act of double-talk yet. So when the dust of the fight to keep the 2002 COOL law clears, these double-talking industry groups and politicians need to raise a foreign flag above their offices, because they are not working for the Stars and Stripes my ancestors fought and died for. I want to remain an American Cowboy, not a North American Cowboy. Jay Miller, Washington, Virginia USCA Founding Member and Director |
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