Cattle Industry COOL Summit Statement of Need, Scope, Purpose, and Participants

10:00 a.m., MT, November 18, 2003
Red Lion Hotel Denver Central

Statement of COOL Summit Need:

1.      The Proposed COOL Rule does not prescribe the specific method by which U.S. live cattle producers can substantiate origin claims for live cattle.

2.      The Proposed COOL Rule specifies that only USDA can initiate enforcement actions against a person found to be in violation of the COOL law, but USDA has not stated the specific criteria it would use to determine producer compliance.  

3.      The Proposed COOL Rule authorizes packers to prescribe the information producers shall provide to verify origins, but USDA places no limits on what information the packers may require.  The Rule authorizes packers to possess or have legal access to producer records that substantiate origin claims, without specifying the specific records required for that purpose.

4.      The Proposed COOL Rule allows industry participants to determine the recordkeeping and information transfer mechanisms needed for COOL compliance.  The live cattle sector is an “industry participant,” therefore, the live cattle sector has an opportunity and responsibility to determine the cattle industry’s preferred record keeping and information transfer mechanism.

Statement of COOL Summit Scope:

1.      The scope of the Cattle Industry COOL Summit shall be limited to solving the problem of how U.S. cow/calf producers, stockers, and feeders can accurately and cost-effectively identify, transfer, and verify origin claims during the life cycles of live cattle.

2.      There shall be no discussion on the merits of COOL.  Summit participants shall focus only on how to improve the Proposed COOL Rules so as to simplify and clarify the responsibility of U.S. live cattle producers under the COOL law.

Statement of COOL Summit Purpose:        

1.      To identify all the options available to the U.S. cattle industry for accurately and efficiently transferring country of origin information from the live cattle sector to the beef processing sector in conformity with the COOL law.

2.      To select the live cattle industry’s preferred option for identifying, transferring, and verifying the origins of live cattle to the beef processing sector at the point of slaughter.

COOL Summit Participants:

1.      All United States cattle associations, including national, regional, state, and county cattle associations, are invited to participate.

2.      Each cattle association is encouraged to send one board member or officer who is also a cattle producer, and no more than one staff member, to represent their association.

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                            This page was last updated on Wednesday, October 12, 2011.