Holy cow.
If you bite into a burger this Labor Day weekend, it might not be from an American heifer.
That’s because of an 11-year old law from the beef industry — the Country of Origin Labeling law, or COOL — that says retailers don’t have to tell you where its beef is coming from.
And even if a pound of sirloin has a “USA” sticker on its plastic, that still doesn’t mean everything hitting your grill comes from America.
Why?
The USDA says the majority of US beef imports are boneless manufacturing trimmings, tiny bits destined to blend into your ground beef. Packers combine these trimmings to hit a desired lean-to-fat ratio.
This means a package of ground beef can have both imported and US beef, even though consumers may not be able to tell from the label — if there is one — where it all comes from.
That fact isn’t sitting well with shoppers, who are nervous after a rollercoaster season of food safety recalls. In the most famous (and most gross) example, grocery shoppers have been living in fear of lettuce because of May’s cyclospora outbreak, which sent a diarrhea parasite into overdrive across the country.
Since then, there’s been bad jalapeños, contaminated whole fruits and dirty vegetables to worry about, not to mention popsicles that might have shards of glass frozen inside.
American cattle farmers are also dismayed, especially after a tough cut last week when Trump lifted tariffs on beef imports for 90 days. Ranchers spend nearly a year raising their heifers to sell them for top profits, but because of the adjustment, some saw record low sales.
As for the mystery meat hitting supermarkets, it’s not always clear — but some ranchers have their predictions.
The Post spoke with Shawn Harris, a first-generation grass-fed cattle farm in Rockmart, Georgia, who expects grocery store shelves will be stocked with expensive beef from Brazil or Argentina.
But Harris claims the beef has not even made it to the US in time for Labor Day.
“We believe right now that beef has not [come] into the United States. So if you go to the grocery store, ground beef has not [gone] down one penny. Matter of fact, it’s still going up because demand says that the customer wants good ground beef,” Harris told The Post.
As for the COOL law, the Georgia farmer is urging lawmakers to reconsider.
“What we are saying as the farmers and all of the agriculture community out there, we need to have country of origin labels on the beef, and that will let the consumer tell pick for themselves. Do you want American beef where you know where it came from locally, or do you want it coming from some other country?” Harris askedThe Post.
While it’s an issue on the minds of Americans, farmers and lawmakers, Harris said consumers have the right to know where they’re food is from. The farmer told The Post that regardless of the origin, Americans deserve to see a “very clear the country of origin of that animal that you’re eating is on the package.”
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