Current law allows a beef carcass imported from another country to be sold to the consumer as “USA Beef” as long as the carcass has been cut and packaged in the USA. Rep. Harriet Hageman has refiled her bill, MCOOL (H.R.5818) to change this deceptive practice, requiring only beef born, raised, and harvested in the USA to have this prestigious label.
“American consumers deserve accurate information on the products they buy, and U.S. ranchers deserve honest and fair competition in the marketplace. The U.S. abandoned MCOOL for beef in 2016 following a World Trade Organization ruling. This change lifted the profit margins of monopolistic big packers at the expense of the American rancher. The domestic market is finally providing the means for our producers to keep family ranches alive, and we must protect these operations by providing full transparency of the origin of beef in the marketplace. MCOOL is more important than ever to grow the size of the national herd and stop the blending of cheap foreign beef in high-quality U.S. products,” stated Rep. Hageman.
