R-CALF USA wants the Senate Agriculture Committee to consider including mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef in farm bill discussions. In a letter to committee leaders, they said they support the American Beef Labeling Act of 2025, introduced by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., which has 11 bipartisan co-sponsors.
Mandatory COOL for beef was included in the 2002 and 2008 farm bills, but Congress repealed the requirement for beef and pork in 2015 after the World Trade Organization ruled it discriminated against Canadian and Mexican livestock imports, exposing the U.S. to potential retaliatory tariffs. Supporters have pushed to restore the mandate ever since.
“We’d have some work to do to be able to include it [in the farm bill],” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., one of the original co-sponsors, told Agri-Pulse. “But obviously, myself, Senator Thune, Senator [Mike] Rounds, [R-S.D.], and others are continuing to work on it.”
The measure is absent from both the House-passed farm bill and the Senate draft, which could be marked up before the August recess.
Sen. Cory Booker, D‑N.J., told Agri‑Pulse he feels strongly about the issue and noted its bipartisan support. He said he would “fight for it.”
As of January, “Product of USA” labels can only be used on meat raised, slaughtered and processed in the United States. Previously, products could carry the label while only being minimally processed here. The label remains voluntary, but meat, poultry and eggs must meet the stricter standard to qualify.
R-CALF is advocating for all beef products to contain a country-of-origin sticker, because they say meat processors have “little economic incentive” to divulge the information otherwise.
“Consumers who wish to purchase beef that was born, raised, and harvested in the United States cannot do so because that information is withheld at the point of sale,” the group said in its letter. “As a result, consumers are denied information many consider important when making purchasing decisions, and cattle producers lose the opportunity to distinguish and receive market value for their domestic product.”
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association opposes reinstating mandatory labeling but supported USDA’s updated voluntary rule. “Through our grassroots policy process, NCBA initiated the Product of the USA review and USDA’s final rule closes this loophole by preventing imported beef from being sold under a U.S. label,” Kent Bacus, NCBA’s executive director of government affairs, said when the rule was finalized.
