County Of Origin Labeling Update
Country of origin labeling for
all meat products has divided the
meat and livestock industry in
recent months.
Packers, especially those who
manufacture ground beef, are at
a loss as to how such labeling
might be accomplished. Many
processors import lean boneless
beef to blend with fatter beef
trimmings from fabrication oper
ations to make leaner products in
demand by today’s consumers.
Other packers located near the
Canadian or Mexican borders
process animals shipped across
the border and all meat is blend
ed together to make finished
products.
Ground beef is especially diffi
cult to track since meat from
BASF Pledges Use
Ethanol In Company
RESEARCH TRIANGLE
PARK, N.C. The BASF Cor
poration announced a new com
pany ethanol initiative at the Na
tional Corn Growers Association
Awards Dinner, held Feb. 26 at
Commodity Classic in San Anto
nio.
According to Rick Van Gen
deren, U.S. business manager for
BASF and guest speaker at the
banquet, John Rabby, BASF
group vice president. North
America, has asked all employ
ees with company cars to seek
out and patronize only outlets
that sell ethanol blended gaso
line. Employees are also being
encouraged to use ethanol in
their personal cars.
In the memo announcing the
initiative to North American
sales and marketing employees
of BASF, Rabby wrote, “As one
of the world’s leading agriculture
input companies, it is vital to our
long-term success to prove our
leadership on many fronts that
concern our ultimate customers,
the farmers.
In a time of high corn surplus
and historically low corn prices,
we must not only voice our sup
port for corn producers, but also
show it with our checkbooks.”
The production of ethanol cur
rently utilizes 600 million bushels
of corn and is blended with an
estimated two percent of all gas
oline fuels. In 2000, BASF em
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hundreds of carcasses might be
blended together in one batch.
This makes it impossible to track
products made exclusively from
U.S. beef.
Further, packers question
whether feeder cattle from Mexi
co must be labeled as imported.
Since these cattle come from
feedlots where pens of cattle may
come from many different
sources, it would be a nightmare
for these records to follow the
cattle.
USD A: “Costly and Useless”
USD A reported to Congress
its findings related to the possible
mandatory country of origin la
beling of meat and meat prod
ucts.
ployees with company vehicles
logged over 10 million miles.
“We can make an impact,” said
Van Genderen. “As an industry
leader, BASF views this effort as
an important step in advancing
the value and price of our cus
tomers’ commodities.”
The BASF Agricultural Prod
ucts business in North America,
Crop Protection Products De
partment, markets a range of in
novative crop protection materi
als and systems that enable
growers to increase their cost-ef
ficiency as well as their crop
yield potential. Its headquarters
are in Research Triangle Park,
N.C. It is a unit of the BASF
Global Agricultural Products Di
vision located in Mount Olive,
N.J.
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The 39-page report concluded
in part that “the major costs as
sociated with new country of ori
gin labeling requirements are re
lated to the cost of segregating
and preserving imported product
identity ’’and that cost, al
though unknown,“cou!d be sig
nificant.”
The direct cost of labels range
from $500,000 for imported mus
cle cuts at grocery stores to $8
million if all muscle cuts are la
beled. Furthermore, “a require
ment for mandatory country of
origin labeling could have a po
tentially damaging effect on
United States exports of beef and
other commodities.
Of
Cars
BASF is a return-focused glob
al company generating long-term
growth and profitability from its
activities in chemicals, nutrition,
and oil and gas. The company’s
product range includes high
value chemicals, plastics, dye
stuffs, dispersions, automobile
and industrial coatings, crop pro
tection products, fine chemicals,
crude oil and natural gas.
BASF’s approach to integration,
known in German as “Verbund,”
is one of the company’s particu
lar strengths and provides a
unique competitive advantage.
With sales in 2000 of 36 billion
euros and a workforce of about
105,000 employees, BASF is one
of the world’s top chemical com
panies. The BASF U.S. Agricul
tural Products Internet address is
http://www.agproducts.basf.com.
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Finally, there’s no evidence
consumers are willing to pay
more for meat to have it labeled
with the country of origin.
“To the contrary, if consumers
do distinguish goods depending
on their country of origin, strong
incentive exists for industries to
act without government inter
vention.”
Some American producers
have been pushing Congress to
require such labeling as a way to
curb imports of Canadian cattle,
but, according to a Associated
Press report, labeling meat could
cost the industry $1 billion a
year.
A coalition of leading food in
dustry trade organizations wel
comed the findings of the USDA
study.
“The report confirms that
mandatory meat labeling propos
als, including those currently
pending in Congress, are expen
sive, difficult to enforce, and
serve no useful purpose,” com
mented coalition spokesman Tim
Hammonds, president and CEO
of the Food Marketing Institute.
The National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association (NCBA) has sup
ported such labeling, with the in
tent that it will protect U.S. beef
from imports. Packers Informal
Working Groups organized by
Food Marketing Institute and
the National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association recently met to ex
plore alternatives to legislation
that would impose mandatory
country-of-origin labeling on
meat products.
Currently being discussed are
options focusing on whether a
voluntary, fee-for-service pro
gram could work and, if so, how
should “domestic beef ”be de
fined.
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BeefcMade In The USA
The latter question is one that
FSIS and the Agricultural Mar
keting Service have also been
studying. Meeting on Mar. 13,
working groups from the two
agencies outlined their require
ments for geographic labeling
claims. AMS provided informa
tion on its “Beef: Made in the
USA” program, still under devel
opment.
The verification process for
USA beef looks a lot like FSIS
requirements.
To qualify for the “Beef: Made
in the USA” program, beef prod
ucts must develop a written sys
tem which:
• Permanently identifies ani
mals at farm or ranch of birth.
• Establishes an auditable
document trail to ensure tracea
bility to farm or ranch of birth.
• Is self-monitored through an
internal auditing system.
• Ensures all persons with re
sponsibilities relating to the pro
gram know and follow program
requirements.
Proposal Reflects Concerns
Responding to requests by pro
ducer groups to discontinue car
cass grading, USDA’s Agricul
tural Marketing Service (AMS)
issued an Advance Notice of Pro
posed Rulemaking in January.
Among the options being con
sidered are 1) TTie elimination of
imported carcass grading or
2) Grading with the provision
that the country of origin mark
be maintained with the grade
mark or
3) Consider imported car
casses the same as domestic ones
and eliminate the requirements
to designate country of origin la
beling-Comments were due by
Apr. 3.
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