Published Monday September 22, 2008

Single meat label, multiple countries
BY LESLIE REED
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU


LINCOLN - Would you buy a New York strip steak labeled as a product of the
U.S. and Canada and Mexico?

After years of wrangling to get country-of-origin labels on meat and other
 agricultural products, several U.S. farm groups now worry that U.S.
 Department of Agriculture regulations will sabotage their efforts.

 In the works for more than six years, the labeling requirement takes effect
 Sept. 30. The farm groups had hoped that it would steer consumers toward
 purchasing meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the United
 States.

 Instead, the groups are hearing that several major meatpackers plan to take
 advantage of a USDA regulation that allows them to label their steaks and
 roasts as products of multiple countries - even if the slaughtered animals
 spent their entire lives in the United States.

 That would defeat the purpose of labeling, said John Hansen, president of
 the Nebraska Farmers Union. "We're trying to get rid of the mystery meat
 here."

 Meatpackers say they're trying to comply with the law without unduly
 increasing costs to consumers.

 "We fully intend to abide by the new labeling rules, while also making sure
 we continue to meet the wishes of our customers," said Gary Mickelson, a
 spokesman for Tyson Foods, which intends to list multiple countries of
 origin on its cuts of beef and pork, but not on its chicken.

 All of Tyson's chickens are domestically produced and will be labeled as
U.S. chicken. Most of its hogs and cows, but not all, are born and raised
in the United States.

 "Rather than go to the significant added expense of segregating livestock
 and finished product, we believe our customers and consumers will be
 best-served if we simply label most of our affected retail products as
 coming from multiple countries of origin," Mickelson said.

 The USDA regulations are intended to give meatpackers flexibility in
 managing the costs of complying with the new regulations, said Mark Dopp,
 senior vice president of regulatory affairs and general counsel for the
 American Meat Institute in Washington, D.C.

Dopp responded to phone messages left last week with several meatpacking
 companies.

 In packinghouses where thousands of animals are slaughtered each day, some
 animals have never been outside the United States; others were born in
Canada or Mexico but were fattened in a U.S. feedlot; and still others were
 imported to be slaughtered. The USDA estimates that up to 2.5 million
cattle
 and 10 million hogs slaughtered by the U.S. meat industry each year
 originated in Canada or Mexico.

 "Essentially," Dopp said, "the regulation allows companies to use the same
 label day in, day out, without having to change it."

 The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation has joined the National Farmers Union,
 the U.S. Cattlemen's Association and R-CALF USA in objecting to the USDA
 policy.

 "If packers use the 'multiple country' designation unnecessarily, it will
 give consumers a false perception that there is little to no beef available
 to them that is entirely produced and processed in this country," said
 Nebraska Farm Bureau President Keith Olsen.

 The farm groups have conceded that ground meat - which is derived from
 multiple animals - could be labeled with multiple countries of origin. But
 they say the packinghouses ought to be able to keep track of the origins of
 the better cuts of meat.

 The Farm Bureau believes that consumers are willing to pay a premium for
 beef produced entirely in the United States, much like they're willing to
 pay extra for Angus beef or organic beef, said Rob Robertson, government
 liaison for the Nebraska group.

Dopp strongly disagreed: "We've seen no evidence that consumers are willing
 to pay more for beef or pork that's a product of the U.S."

 National Farmers Union President Tom Buis has lambasted the USDA
regulation,
 saying it violated "good-faith" negotiations between farm groups and food
 processors.

 "USDA has created a loophole big enough to drive a truck through," Buis
 said, "violating the spirit, letter and intent of the law and deceiving
 consumers who have consistently shown support for buying U.S. products."


 Contact the writer: 402-473-9581, leslie.reed@owh.com