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KCA commends industry leaders, COOL reccomendationsKansas On Oct. 1, the cattle industry reaches a milestone. The implementation of country-of-origin labeling is expected, and all producers will be affected. In late August, Mike Schultz, R-CALF Country of Origin Labeling Committee chair and KCA Board member represented producers at an unprecedented meeting of industry leaders to work together to ease the burden on producers when implementing COOL. "It is not perfect, but we have to start somewhere. We tried to eliminate a lot of guess work in the industry from the producer aspect. We have simplified the producers', the packers', and the retail food businesses' responsibility so that all aspects of the supply chain can comply with COOL," remarked Schultz. In a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture the group stated, "As you witnessed, 70 representatives of over 30 livestock industry sector, species and food retail organizations and companies attended. Our principal goal was to reach agreement on universal language for affidavits and/or declarations of country of origin to move origin claims along the livestock's chain of custody/ownership to slaughter facilities to assure that meat "covered commodities" will be accurately labeled at retail. We understand that USDA has no authority to regulate livestock as live animals are not "covered commodities." However, we want to provide our buyers with a framework they may rely on to comply with COOL. We sought the simplest, most effective, least burdensome and least costly approach for producers, marketing businesses, feeders and packers to use in implementing and complying with COOL. We were especially sensitive to the costs of paperwork to the industry." The group came to a consensus in recommending the use of affidavits; through these, KCA believes that COOL implementation will be eased. Affidavits can be obtained at the KCA office or online at www.kansascattlemen.com. If a producer has questions regarding producer responsibility or general COOL regulations, please feel free to call KCA at 785-238-1483. KCA commends all of the organizations and the packers who all came to together to recommend opportunities to USDA to simplify the regulations of COOL. 9/22/08 Date: 9/18/08
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