Making COOL Cool Again

Northern Plains Resource Council leads the way on reinstating mandatory country-of-origin labeling.

By Michael Nelson

In 2015 Congress repealed a law mandating country-of-origin labeling (COOL) on beef and pork. In the years following, hundreds of thousands of cattle producers went out of business. Between 2017 and 2022, the Department of Agriculture estimates that the U.S. lost over 150,000 cattle operations, further weakening the economy of rural communities throughout the U.S. Montana alone has lost 25% of its family ranches since 2015.

You can attribute the loss of family ranches to what the repeal of COOL has enabled–manipulations in the cattle market by transnational meatpackers that flood the American market with cheap imported beef and pork they can legally mislabel as produced in America. That drives down the price of both, to the detriment of American producers and to consumers who are duped into thinking that the beef and pork they are buying and eating comes from the U.S. It’s often not, and transnational meatpackers rake in extraordinary profits thanks to that absence of transparency.

The USDA estimates that the U.S. lost over 150,000 cattle operations, further weakening the economy of rural communities throughout the U.S. Montana alone has lost 25% of its family ranches.

Our member group Northern Plains Resource Council is leading the charge to compel federal lawmakers to reinstate mandatory country-of-labeling (MCOOL) on beef and pork so cattle producers receive a fair return and consumers have the choice to buy healthier, better-quality meat that’s produced here in the U.S.

During the Congressional recess in August, rancher members of Northern Plains held meetings with each of Montana’s Congressional delegates to make the case for why they should support MCOOL. In October, Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke agreed to co-sponser the Country of Origin Enforcement Act of 2025, the House companion bill to the Senate’s American Beef Labeling Act, which was introduced in February by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). Northern Plains members are now pressuring the three other Montana delegates to get on board. Videos that Northern Plains posted on social media from rancher leader Steve Charter and from former Sen. Jon Tester, which have both gone viral, have helped ramp up the pressure on the congressional holdouts.

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Our best shot at getting MCOOL reinstated is by getting these bills wrapped into the Farm Bill. Here’s where the Farm Bill stands: The government funding package that ended the record breaking 43-day government shutdown included a one year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill. This means that Congress has once again extended the runway, this time to September 30, 2026 to pass a bipartisan Farm Bill. Even with this extra time, it will be a tall order, in today’s Washington, to get such a deal across the finish line during an election year.

But Northern Plains has proven, once again, that good old-fashioned community organizing can move our members of Congress to action, even in these unprecedented times.