Q & A Saturday: What is COOL?

Country of Origin Labeling: What is it, and what does it mean to the beef industry?


What is it? Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, is a food labeling law that became official in the United States in 2009. Basically, it mandates that food retailers must notify their customers of the country that certain food products, including meats, fruits, vegetables, and nuts, originated from. 

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So what? In theory, this sounds like a great idea, right? Consumers are able to find out where their food comes from. However, in the last two years the costs and disadvantages of COOL have come to far outweigh the benefits.


It requires American meat packers and processors to separate non-American beef, which means lower productivity and higher costs. Alternatively, they can decrease their imports. You can guess which one they were forced to choose. 

Preliminary Ruling. So the rather protectionist policy of COOL, after 2 years of dispute by Canadian and Mexican lobby groups, has come to a preliminary ruling. Last Friday, the World Trade Organization ruled that COOL is in violation of the agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade. This isn't final- it will have a 30 day comment period, followed by an opportunity for the US government to appeal it, followed by a public ruling in September.


Trade. We can't officially say the battle is won yet, but in my opinion this is a great step for the North American and world cattle industry. Trade between Canada and the United States is essential for both parties. Both the NCBA (US) and CCA (Canadian) are publicly opposed to COOL for a good reason. 


Not the answer. We still believe wholeheartedly that consumers deserve to know where there beef comes from, and the beef industry works towards being more transparent every day. Unfortunately, COOL functions as more of a non-tariff trade barrier than an encouragement to traceability. You can rest easy knowing that similarly stringent quality controls exist both in Canada and the USA, and no piece of meat, fruit, or vegetable could ever reach your plate without passing hundreds of quality tests and procedures.

Photo. You can bet your beef has been through some serious testing to make it here.

Good Riddance. COOL, the beef producers of Canada will not be sad to see you go. We're looking forward to a more open market and increased trade with our number 1 partner, and they are too.


I'm expecting this to be a big issue among the NCBA YCC group in Washington DC. What do you think?

For more great articles about the COOL ruling:

Drover's Cattle Network: WTO rules against U.S. COOL program

Canadian Cattlemen: WTO seen putting chill on U.S. COOL

Q & A Saturday

This Saturday's question comes from Twitter!

Q: Where does Canada stand in the world beef industry?

Canada is a unique beef producer because we rely heavily on our export markets. Over half of our cattle and beef are exported, with approximately 80-90% of it going to the US (CBEF, CanFax). We are a heavy world player in terms of beef production and have a small population, hence the large amount of exports.

Some stats to consider:

• As of January 1, 2011, there are 12 460 000 cattle in Canada, giving us the 12th largest cattle herd in the world.
•  Coming in at the top for cattle numbers , in order, are India, Brazil, and China.
• Canadians consume 28.90 kg/capita of beef and veal every year, making us 5th highest. 
• We only account for 3.3% of world cattle/beef imports.

(CanFax)

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It's pretty mindblowing to me that we Canadians produce almost 12 and a half million cattle each year with a population of only 33 million. That's one productive nation. And thousands of hard working farmers and ranchers making sure that the beef sent to feed other countries is of high quality, safe, and nutritious. So not only is your neighbor the feedlot owner working to feed your community, but communities around the world. Pretty cool, hey? Let me know if you have any questions, or would like some more info on Canadian beef.

Q & A Saturdays

I'm starting a new feature on the blog to answer common questions my city friends have about agriculture. This week, I reached out to my Facebook and Twitter contacts and came up with this question to answer:

Q: Does the average beef animal spend its entire life on a feedlot?

A: Definitely not. There is a common misconception that calves are born on the feedlot and stay there until they are slaughtered. The reality is a much better picture. On farms like mine, baby calves are born in the spring and graze on big, open pastures. We move our cows and calves to a lake pasture when they are a month or two old to give them more room. They live like this for a few more months until the babies are weaned from their mothers at about 6 months of age for the health and well being of the mother and calf. After weaning, most calves are sent to back-grounding operations, which we also run on our farm, to be fed high roughage diets like silage. From 6 or 7 to one year of age, cattle live in back grounding pens which are generally very open and heavily bedded for the comfort of the cattle. At one year, cattle are sent to the feedyard where they will be kept for 4-6 months, or until they reach finished weight.

One of our back grounding pens for calves 6-12 months

The dams(mothers) and sires(fathers) of these feedlot calves will stay on a farm like ours for as long as they are producing calves. They live out their lives in wide open pastures, being bred and having a new calf every year.

One of the calving fields where the cows raise the young calves

So there you have it, folks. The average beef animal destined for your plate will only spend 4-6 months of it's life in a feedlot, where they are well looked after by pen-checkers and managers. If this question & answer has left you with more questions, please comment and ask!