Congress is currently working on a new farm bill. In this farm bill update, we must see the return of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL).
Currently, consumers can purchase a pound of ground beef labeled as “Product of USA” and have no idea that the beef actually came from 10 different countries. Really! With an outbreak of “hoof and mouth disease” in Paraguayan beef, that pathogen could be in our hamburger. Orperhaps our hamburgers include beef from Brazil, where forests have been burned down.
Four big beef packers own the market in the beef world. These four big corporations (Cargill, JBS, Tyson and National Beef) have big-bucks lobbyists who put a stranglehold on Montana ranchers.
As mothers and grandmothers, we want to know where our beef comes from. If it’s from Mexico, then tell us that!!
Our small ranches are dying… being forced to charge less for healthy beef to make ends meet because of cheap foreign beef in Walmart.
Why then is it that Congress has not passed COOL? Have they been bought by lobbyists of the Big Beef guys? So, we have an ask. We are asking you to let Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Steve Daines know that you want mandatory COOL, as if the health of YOUR family depends on knowing where your beef comes from…because it does!
Start here by signing our petition: tinyurl.com/3abppfuh.
— Montana Mommas and Gramommas, Barbara Gulick and Deborah Muth, Northern Plains Resource Council
