Years of fierce debate and political tricks continue in the battle over country-of-origin-labeling of meats, as COOL comes close to becoming national policy.

FREE Mobile Banking NOW AVAILABLE!

Congress adopted the labeling program in 2002 at the request of U.S. cattle producers and consumer groups, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture studied the law and never deciding how to implement it. Then, influential legislators in Congress cut off funding for it.

Congress re-adopted COOL early this year in the Farm Bill. The USDA has announced the final rules for the program, which could take effect Sept. 30.

But the final rules contain a gigantic loophole that undercuts the program.

The new rules allow packers to label U.S. meat as if it came from multiple countries.

This “defeats the purpose,” Nebraska Farm Bureau President Keith Olsen said.

Critics say the meatpackers evidently persuaded USDA officials to undermine COOL. Meat packers, who import beef from other countries, have vigorously opposed the law since it was adopted.

“This is a slap in the face to the thousands of independent U.S. cattle producers who have fought for more than six years for the right to proudly market their beef products from cattle that are exclusively born, raised and slaughtered here in the United States of America,” said Max Thornsberry, president of the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund.

"USDA has created a loophole big enough to drive a truck through, violating the spirit, letter and intent of the law and deceiving consumers who have consistently shown support for buying U.S. products," said Tom Buis, president of the National Farmer’s Union. "This is about truth in labeling."

The COOL provision in the farm bill was a compromise agreement that creates four labeling categories:

· Products exclusively born, raised and processed in the United States would be labeled as a U.S. product;

· Products from animals that were not exclusively born, raised and processed in the United States and not imported for immediate slaughter be labeled with all countries in which the animal may have been born, raised or processed;

· An animal that was imported for immediate processing may be labeled as a product of the importing country and the United States; and

· Animals that were born, raised and processed in a foreign country will be labeled as a product of the country of origin.