Farm-Scape is sponsored by Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork Play Audio Farm-Scape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork.

Farm-Scape, Episode 1240

The Chair of the 'Country of Origin Labelling Steering Committee' says COOL would not be an issue if provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement where adhered to.
The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service is in the midst of a series of listening sessions across the US to hear opinions on planned mandatory Country of Origin labelling.

The Canadian Pork Council's Country of Origin Labelling Steering Committee is encouraging those with concerns to appear at one of the sessions.

Committee Chair Larry Friesen says US farmers rely on Canadian weanlings to produce what should be considered an American product.

"If a pig goes down there at 17, 18, 19 days of age and spends 95 percent of its life and 100 percent of its feed and management in the US, as far as I'm concerned, that's a US product.

We keep hearing about North American Free Trade.

There actually is a provision for country of origin labelling under NAFTA but nobody dreamt or thought about a little loophole like using the word 'born' as qualifying itself for NAFTA. Under the current rules for NAFTA, where the animal is processed, that's where the point of origin should be.

No matter where a cow or a hog was born or raised, as long as it was processed in the United States, that's what it would be.

It would be a product of Canada or a product of the United States based on where it was processed and, if they adopted those NAFTA rules, we wouldn't have this situation."

Friesen says, if the American farmer can no longer consider his hogs a US product, the number of processing plants he's able to market to will be severely reduced...probably to no more than one.

Information on the listening sessions is available on the National Pork Producers web site at nppc.org.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.