Montana Livestock Country Of Origin Labeling

GLENDIVE - Congressional candidate, Ric Holden, is calling on congress to reinstate country-of-origin-labeling for the livestock industry in the United States. At the present time the U.S. consumer does not know if they are eating an American raised meat product or some product from a foreign country. Large meat packing companies have been flooding the market with imported meat products and denying consumers the right to know the origin of their food purchases. Year after year the large meat packing companies have packaged foreign meat with American meat products. These large out of state meat packers have always resisted the attempts to label food products like beef. Holden said, "we can send a man to the moon, but we can't figure out how to sort meat into labeled packages". Holden went on to say, "it is just a matter of want and desire", the packers want to make extra money by selling foreign meat in the United States, under a U.S. government stamp of approval.

Congress is now negotiating the next farm bill. Foreign lobbyists are working to kill any attempt that congress might take to require the labeling of meat products. As a rancher, Holden, knows the importance of labeling clean, fresh, and wholesome American meat and separating it from meat products shipped into the U.S. from other countries. The labeling of beef was specifically removed by congress in 2015. This action is denying meat consumers the right to know the origin of their meat products. Holden said, "As a member of congress I would amend the farm bill to include the labeling of all meat products sold to American consumers."