While the U.S. and Canadian producers have had different opinions on a number of topics in recent history, we have agreed upon one thing from the start: Mandatory country of origin labeling (MCOOL) is a bad deal for our combined pork industries. MCOOL just isn’t cool. Period. While a minority of U.S. producers would disagree with that statement, the vast majority see MCOOL for what it is – a back-door protectionist measure that has nothing to do with product quality or safety. It is based on a desperate belief that adding costs to Canadian pigs will keep them north of the border. The other erroneous belief is that in so doing, those pigs and the pork they produce will not affect U.S. pork and hog prices. It’s difficult to believe that anyone in this day of global markets and instant communications would actually believe that, but they do. MCOOL’s roots trace back to the late 1990s and, more specifically the North American industry’s severe financial crisis of 1998 and 1999. During this critical period, Canada was shipping more and more pigs to the U.S. That did not happen, of course, without willing buyers of pigs in the U.S. but the critical factor was the continued increase in the Canadian breeding herd even during those difficult times. Many U.S. producers, including some quite reasonable people, were asking “How is it that finances can be this bad and Canada is still expanding?” One response was “If they want to do that, let’s force the pigs to stay in Canada.” This all happened again in spades in 2002 and 2003 giving rise to this legislation and NPPC’s decision to ask for countervailing duties on imported Canadian pigs. Was MCOOL the correct response? Of course not, and the U.S. in general and NPPC in particular remain committed to free trade. That’s the reason NPPC has opposed this from day one. But should tough economic times return and the Canadian sector not respond in a way that is at least close to what U.S. responses and economic theory suggest is correct, there will be more tension. Senators from the Midwest and Northern Plains carry considerable clout and have been quite united in their interest in these market meddling legislative proposals. The biggest irony, or course, is that MCOOL will hurt most of those small, independent “family” farmers that the Senators and Representatives believe they are protecting. A few years ago, Rod Smith of Feedstuffs newspaper lead off his editorial on the proposed mandatory price reporting system with this line: “Mandatory price reporting is a bad, bad, bad, bad idea whose time has come.” I believe the same could be said for MCOOL which will take a great deal of time, effort and money and generate hardly any benefits. But the Congressmen and Senators “did something” and that seems to be what counts.