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November 10, 2003 Re: Invitation to Participate in Cattle Industry COOL Summit on November 18, 2003 Dear U.S. Cattle Associations: The Proposed Rules for mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) issued by the USDA on October 30, 2003, specifically state: “To provide credible country of origin claims, firms in the supply chain will need to create, maintain, and transfer information from one level of the supply chain to the next. The proposed rule allows the industry participants to determine the record keeping information transfer mechanisms needed for compliance.” The U.S. live cattle industry, the single largest segment of production agriculture in America, now has the responsibility as well as a tremendous opportunity to help the USDA develop a simplified, low-cost or no-cost method of establishing an information transfer mechanism that will ensure the accuracy of origin declarations for live cattle, without unnecessarily burdening independent, U.S. cattle producers. I am confident that the producer associations representing U.S. live cattle producers can meet the challenge of establishing such a mechanism for the live cattle industry. To help our industry accomplish this objective, I am inviting you to participate in a Cattle Industry COOL Summit to be held from 10:00 a.m. MST to 5:00 p.m. MST, on Tuesday, November 18, 2003, at the Red Lion Hotel Denver Central, 4040 Quebec Street, Denver, Colorado. The Cattle Industry COOL Summit will entail a round table discussion with representatives of U.S. live cattle producer associations. The sole purpose of the Summit will be to develop a cattle industry recommendation on the preferred method by which the origins of live cattle can be accurately ascertained at the point of slaughter. The development of a method for determining origins of live cattle at the point of slaughter properly falls within the purview of U.S. live cattle industry producer associations. Similarly, the information transfer mechanism established beyond the point of slaughter properly falls within the purview of the meatpacking and processing segments of our industry, and we should afford those segments deference in their formulation of a preferred method for maintaining the integrity of origin declarations during the manufacturing process of beef. Associations representing U.S. live cattle producers would be remiss if they did not rise to the challenge of attempting to reach a consensus among our respective organizations as to the preferred origin verification method the USDA should adopt for our live cattle industry within the final COOL Rules. I trust you will agree that this opportunity must be pursued for the good of the U.S. live cattle industry and I hope you will participate in this narrowly focused, but critically important Summit. R-CALF USA is extending invitations to all U.S. national, regional, and state cattle producer associations. We ask that each association send no more than one association officer or director who must also be a cattle producer. We are also extending an invitation for each association to also send no more than one staff member to participate in the Summit. If your association has formulated a recommendation on how best to verify the origins of live cattle, please e-mail your recommendations to Jenni Ries at jenniries@r-calfusa.com and we will provide a summary of recommendations at the Summit. Please also e-mail Jenni Ries to confirm your attendance. You may make room reservations at the Red Lion Hotel Denver Central at 303-321-6666. Room rates will be $59.00 per night plus tax and be sure to say you are with the Cattle Summit. Please contact Bill Bullard at our R-CALF USA office (406-252-2516) if you should have any questions or need any additional information. We look forward to working with you to develop an industry-wide recommendation for USDA that addresses the concerns of U.S. cattle producers. Respectfully,
Leo R. McDonnell |
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