By BROOKS DAILEY
Montana Farmers Union President on BillingsGazette.com

Should we know where our food comes from? Or should we be happy with whatever is placed on our table before us?

A month ago in Washington, D.C. when Congress reconvened, farm and consumer organizations representing more than 50 million Americans told Congress that they want to know the origin of their food. They said they want the country-of-origin labeling law implemented without delay.

This coalition of farm and consumer groups urged the U.S. Senate to oppose the omnibus appropriations bill as long as it contained a two-year delay for implementing mandatory country-of-origin labeling. The move to delay labeling implementation was orchestrated prior to the Congressional recess by large meat processors in an effort to kill COOL.

Urgent safety concerns

We have been working for country-of-origin labeling for years. But in recent months, the rationale for country-of-origin labeling has become even more compelling with food safety incidents involving imports. With a bovine spongiform encephalopathy case discovered in Washington state in a cow imported from Canada, and the hepatitis A outbreak from Mexican green onions, farmers, ranchers, consumers and our trading partners are demanding the ability to differentiate between American and foreign products.
 

The BSE finding was a wake-up call for the United States. And the Montana Farmers Union says that our government and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in particular, cannot roll over and go back to sleep. We must do whatever is necessary to ensure both a healthy cattle population and world-wide consumer confidence in U.S. beef.

Opponents say that labeling and testing of animals destined for human consumption is cost prohibitive and unnecessary. Actually, neither assertion is correct.

Cost-effective testing

Japan and the European Union test slaughtered animals for BSE, often with lab kits manufactured in the United States. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, this procedure takes about four hours, and in the United States would increase the cost of beef just 6 to 10 cents per pound at the grocery store. Ken Foster, a Purdue University agricultural economist, estimated just a few weeks ago that the plan to be able to identify the origin of any animal, whether it's cattle or hogs or sheep will, in the end, cut costs to both farmers and consumers.
 

In addition, USDA has now reduced its cost-estimate of COOL, and at most, American consumers will pay an additional 13 cents a week for their groceries, if all costs were passed on through increased retail prices.
 

Since the BSE discovery last December, the United States has lost 90 percent of its beef export market, and it is estimated to have cost U.S. ranchers anywhere from $1.6 to $5 billion in 2004 alone. If the labeling rules had been in effect before an imported animal was diagnosed with BSE, it would have been easier to make the case to our trading partners that U.S. beef was safe.
 

So I ask you, what value should we place on human health and agricultural viability? Compared to record setting deficits, a costly war in Iraq, a struggling economy, and a President dreaming about sending humans to Mars, animal testing and country-of-origin labeling seem like a bargain. Just a few additional pennies per week are, to us, a relatively easy and inexpensive way to assure consumers everywhere that our priority remains providing wholesome, safe food.

Montana Farmers Union membership includes more than 2,500 farm and ranch families statewide.