The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association fired back at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s plans to engage on “Product of the U.S.A.” label discussions, saying the situation requires urgency.
On Tuesday, NCBA announced its intentions to work with USDA to ensure labels bearing “Product of the U.S.A.” declarations were in fact from American cattle rather than foreign born animals processed in the U.S. The group was one of the major opponents to mandatory country-of-origin labeling, which was repealed in 2015 over threat of Canadian and Mexican retaliation authorized by the World Trade Organization.
In a release, USCA called for any dialogue that might be convened to “increase truth in labeling at the meat counter.”
“Warm tidings of cheer are nice during the holiday season, but the problems and distortions cattle producers endure in the cattle marketplace are real,” the group said. “Progress and solutions need to advance, and USCA won't rest until transparency and true price discovery is a reality for every cattle producer across the U.S.”
USCA in October petitioned USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to ensure all “Product of the U.S.A.” claims were from cattle “born, raised, and harvested in the United States.”
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