Background: Colorado cow/calf rancher and State Representative Kimmi Lewis introduced the Colorado Beef Bill (HB 1043) in the Colorado legislature that fills the void created when Congress (the swamp) removed beef from our nation's mandatory country of origin labeling (COOL) law. Chicken, lamb, goat, fish and shellfish, fruits and vegetables and certain nuts are all still required to be labeled under the federal COOL law but the powerful multinational meatpackers churned the swamp causing beef and pork to become outliers as they are no longer required to be labeled.
The Colorado beef bill (HB 1043) fills the void by requiring Colorado grocery stores to place a sign next to beef products that identifies the origins of the beef sold to consumers. The bill reserves the "Product of the U.S.A." sign only for beef that is born, raised and slaughtered in the United States. If the beef is not exclusively produced in the United States, the sign must state the foreign country(s) from which the beef originated.
The multinational meatpackers and their allies, the NCBA, Colorado Cattlemen's Association, Colorado Livestock Association, and the Colorado Farm Bureau are pulling out all the stops to defeat HB 1043. These groups do not want consumers to know that they buy cheaper foreign cattle to feed and cheaper foreign beef to resell rather than to buy their inputs from U.S. cattle producers.
These groups know that when consumers are offered a choice, demand for U.S. cattle and U.S. beef will increase and domestic cattle prices will increase.
How do we know that?
When mandatory COOL for beef was fully implemented in 2013, your cattle prices rallied and reached the highest nominal levels in history. Beef demand also increased, with the beef demand index reaching the highest level in over a decade. Then, in 2016, the year after COOL for beef was repealed, your cattle prices fell over $60 per cwt (for calves) and beef demand began falling. The live cattle industry lost $13.6 billion in cash receipts during the year after COOL's repeal.
The opponents of (HB 1043) are blasting Colorado legislatures with emails and phone calls and spreading outrageous lies about Colorado's beef bill. For example, a Colorado Farm Bureau spokesperson sent an email blast stating the bill singles out "beef from pork, poultry and fish." This misinformed spokesperson doesn't even know that COOL still applies to chicken and fish. Nevertheless, he and others are purposely scaring Colorado legislators with false information.
HB 1043 is scheduled for a hearing before the Colorado House Agriculture Committee at 1:30 p.m. Mountain Time on Monday, January 29, 2018. It must pass in the Committee if it is to make it to the floor of the House for a full debate.
Action: As quickly as you can, please call and email the following Colorado Legislators to urge them to fully support HB 1043 because Colorado consumers deserve to know where their beef is from and Colorado cattle producers deserve to have their high quality USA beef identified in the marketplace. You may go here to find phone numbers:
Colorado House Ag email addresses
303-866-2917; 970-231-5090
303-866-2968
303-866-3706; 970-768-6500
303-866-2907; 970-302-4013
303-866-2955
303-866-5522
303-866-2967
303-866-3911
303-866-2947
303-866-2923
303-866-2906
303-866-2916
US Beef is Safer Than Foreign Beef!
Thanks for your help! You produce the best beef in the world and under the best of conditions. You deserve to be rewarded for that!
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