The M-COOL Resolve Rally Depends on a Farm Bill Fix
The latest word from Steve Dittmer, the executive director of the American Freedom Foundation, who works hard on behalf of true North American livestock trade, including Canada, Mexico, and the United States as do most producers in the U.S. and who is totally, 100 percent opposed to any kind of origin labelling is the resolve could come before Christmas, 2013.
"I talked to someone in Washington DC who tells me the Farm Bill is moving along," says Dittmer in late night phone call. "That is our best shot at fixing this thing. The (Farm Bill) conferees are meeting every day and think they will get a bill done by the end of the year."
He says those who really care, not only want to remove the so-called updated version, (the fix since the WTO ruled) they want to remove the entire clause for meat.
"They don't want to just get rid of the new version, but the whole thing," Dittmer says. "That is what the WTO would want too."
He says they want to remove beef, pork and poultry from the M-COOL because the fruit and vegetable people like it.
The biggest problem with the Farm Bill and what is holding it up is the nutrition and feeding program, what use to be call food stamps now go under Snaps.
"The Republicans wanted to cut much more from those programs than the people from left and senate did," he says. "They were only 30 or 40 billion dollars off."
Hopefully, the Farm Bill conferees can make the required changes through the Farm Bill by the end of the year, he adds.
Lyle Stewart, Saskatchewan's minister of agriculture says there is a growing recognition within the U.S. of the risks posed to the U.S. packing industry from M-COOL.
In November, a delegation of Canadian beef and pork sector representatives, the federal agriculture minister and agriculture ministers from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta attended the North American Meat Association Outlook conference in Chicago to build alliances with potential U.S. allies to lobby against COOL.
Stewart says the U.S. packing industry recognizes COOL will hurt their industry but the attitudes of legislators are all over the map.
"There's a substantial and I think growing body of U.S. legislators in both houses that are seeing this thing was hasty and that it's going to hurt the U.S. as much as it is us and of course there's still a substantial number of legislators down there that have enough good will that they don't want to hurt us either," he says. "So I think there's room for some sober second thought on this if an opportunity presents itself, for instance in a debate of a new Farm Bill to include this and come up with a legislative solution."
He says the U.S. system is complex and unpredictable even to those who know it well. Those who are very familiar with the system find it hard to predict whether or not there will be a Farm Bill, whether or not M-COOL fix will be in it, and whether or not there's enough votes to change M-COOL in a substantial manner acceptable to Canadians or repeal it altogether.
Stewart says the American Meat Institute predicts if and when the U.S. implements fully the new rules, nine thousand Americans will lose their jobs, and up to seven major U.S. packing plants will close.
No small potatoes for a country that is struggling deeply financially and half of the population is on the government dole.
It is no secret those who keep pushing for M-COOL, and the stricter the regs the better, are those who want to keep the border closed, also have no use for the packers, and simply want to live in their own bubble, thinking the consumer will pay the higher price regardless. •
— By Harry Siemens