February 4, 2003

Cattle and hog producers who supply livestock to beef and pork packing plants should start preparing now for the new country-of-origin labeling law, according to the American Meat Institute's Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and General Counsel Mark Dopp.

In an address to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Annual Convention in Nashville, Dopp said that producers will need verifiable documentation for every animal born in 2003 and thereafter that goes to market when country-of-origin labeling becomes mandatory in September 2004. He said that each animal sold to a packing plant must have its place of birth documented, as well as the place or places the animal spent its life.

Dopp told NCBA members that effective September 2004, meat packers will require this information in order to buy and harvest cattle and hogs for use in the retail marketplace. Providing this information to packers must be done because packers, as suppliers of a product subject to country-of-origin labeling requirements, will be required to furnish that documentation to retail customers. Retailers must then maintain the information at their stores for two years.

All country-of-origin documentation must be able to be independently verified, he noted, and USDA has indicated that self-certification will not be acceptable. Based on USDA's interpretation of the new law, Dopp said that cattle and hog producers and everyone else along the production chain - from the cow/calf producer to the feedlot operator - may need to contract with an independent, third party to verify their records, as well as the records of any previous owner of the livestock. "In other words, producers and feedlot operators likely will have to hire someone to verify the validity of country-of-origin documents," he said. "And paying for this verification will be the producer's responsibility."

Beginning in September 2004, retailers will not be able to sell red meat from an unknown source into the U.S. retail marketplace. "In fact, it may be illegal to sell in the retail marketplace meat from livestock lacking appropriately certified records," Dopp said.

"The American Meat Institute continues to believe that the country-of-origin labeling law was a bad idea and that Congress should repeal it or make it permanently voluntary," Dopp told the group. "However, in the meantime, everyone in the meat industry, including livestock producers, must prepare for the inevitable logistical problems and unplanned expenses this law has created."

To view Dopp's presentation, go to: http://www.meatami.com/Template.cfm?Section=Country-of-OriginLabeling&NavMenuID=171&template=TaggedContentFile.cfm&NewsID=627.