Letter to House of Representatives to Support Mandatory
COOL for Meat and Meat Products

June 6, 2005

Attn: Ag/Trade LA’s

United States House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Representative:

We are writing to express our strong opposition to a provision in the fiscal year (FY) 2006 Agriculture
Appropriations bill that prohibits the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from moving forward with
the implementation of mandatory country-of-origin labeling (COOL) for meat and meat products.

Delaying the implementation of mandatory COOL for another year can be best characterized as the wrong
move at the wrong time. There is no rationale for further delaying implementation of laws passed in the
2002 farm bill via the appropriations process, especially considering this measure has already been
delayed far longer than necessary. A flood of imported food products continue to find their place on
America’s grocery store shelves, yet consumers have no way of distinguishing what is U.S. food products
from imported products.

Our coalition of producers and consumers, who worked to pass this very popular law, remains united in
seeing it implemented for all the covered commodities. Most recently, mandatory COOL for seafood was
implemented by USDA and the sky hasn’t fallen. The overestimated cost projections and purported
bureaucratic burden are proving false. Congress should be helping, not hindering USDA to write
common-sense implementation rules for COOL on the remaining commodities.

Country-of-origin labeling is designed to provide information to consumers and help U.S. producers
promote their own products in the marketplace. Our nation’s farmers, ranchers and seafood producers
produce the best products in the world, and America’s consumers want the ability to make informed
decisions when purchasing food for their families. Recent cases of foodborne illness from imported food
and the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in Washington State that was traced back to Canada only reinforce the need for consumers to be able to accurately identify the source of their food. Without
mandatory COOL, consumers will be denied the ability to choose between U.S. and imported products
and producers will be denied the opportunity to promote their superior products.

Please vote to strike the provision to prohibit USDA from implementing mandatory COOL for meat and
meat products from the FY2006 agriculture appropriations bill.

Sincerely,