The impetus for MCOOL came from northern plains beef producers as far back as the mid–1990s. The stated idea was that U.S. consumers deserve full information about the foods that they purchase and eat—an idea that is difficult to argue with. The underlying concerns, however, were growing imports of beef, pork, cattle and hogs from Canada and their perceived negative impact on U.S. markets. MCOOL is far less onerous for the pork industry than for the beef industry
for several reasons. First, Canada is the only source of imported pigs and market hogs. No hogs are presently
imported from Mexico due to animal disease restrictions. Second, all–in all–out production systems
keep pigs in defined, closed groups from early in life until slaughter in order to prevent the introduction of
disease. There is little or no comingling of animals as there is in the beef industry. This means that the origin
of an individual animal is the same as the origin of its group. Whether U.S. pig production increases
depends on the ultimate reaction of consumers, primarily to the multicountry labels. U.S. consumers
have a very positive view of things Canadian, though, so the negative impact may be small and will almost
certainly be smaller than consumers’ reactions to the presence of other countries such as Mexico, Brazil and
Uruguay on beef labels. If consumer reaction is not negative, Canada will continue to supply weaner and feeder pigs to U.S. feeders depending primarily on the exchange rate between the two countries’ currencies.