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In an effort to make American-grown food known to consumers, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) is working to assure congressional support for the soon-to-be-enacted Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) law.

The law will require mandatory country of origin labeling on fresh and frozen beef, veal, lamb, pork, fish, fruits, vegetables and peanuts. The law – a part of the 2002 Farm Bill – is due to go into effect in September 2004, but some farm and food organizations want to have the law repealed.

AFBF continues to believe the law is good for American farmers. That belief is based in part on a recent study by Colorado State University which found that 75 percent of consumers prefer to purchase a beef product that carries a label indicating its country of origin. And 73 percent of the consumers said they’d be willing to pay between 11 and 24 percent more for that labeling on their beef. According to Joe Miller, commodity specialist with AFBF, "Right now consumers can’t distinguish between what’s imported from other countries and what’s grown right here." He added that labeling will tell consumers what’s from the United States and what isn’t "so they can make the choice of what they want to buy."

One of the concerns expressed by opponents of the law is that it will require the creation of a comprehensive and costly animal identification program. But Miller says, "All you need is a small paper trail that follows the animal to processing and says that the animal was born and raised in the U.S. It’s fairly inexpensive and easy to do."

Miller indicates AFBF is pleased with the progress of implementing rules for the program and agrees with most of the guidelines established by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. Farm Bureau is monitoring the rule-making process to make certain the program is not burdensome or excessively costly for producers. Ultimately, AFBF would like to see all grocery products labeled as to country of origin.