Ranchers across Montana and neighboring states are working to restore mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork, a requirement Congress repealed a decade ago. The effort reflects persistent frustration among domestic producers over lost market advantage and revenue pressures they attribute partly to cheaper imported meat competing without clear disclosure of origin.
Jeanie Alderson, who operates a ranch in Birney in southeastern Montana, witnessed firsthand the financial impact of the labeling repeal. Her family’s ranch revenue dropped roughly $120,000 between 2015 and 2016, the period surrounding Congress’s December 2015 decision to eliminate mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef and pork. Alderson now sits on the board of the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Montana-based nonprofit, and is part of a coalition of agricultural groups pushing to reinstate the requirement.
“Consumers deserve to know where their beef comes from, and producers deserve a fair, transparent, honest and competitive market,” Alderson said.
The Policy History
Mandatory country-of-origin labeling, known as mCOOL, had required retail beef and pork products to display where the animal was raised and slaughtered. The system operated for approximately seven years before Congress repealed it following a World Trade Organization challenge filed by Canada and Mexico in 2008. Trade officials argued the labeling requirement functioned as a protectionist barrier, and the pressure from the WTO dispute ultimately prompted lawmakers to eliminate it.
The labeling system came with significant costs. A USDA-commissioned study found that tracking and compliance expenses translated to billions of dollars in additional industry costs, a finding that complicated the case for reinstatement even among some agricultural economists.
Darrell Peel, an agricultural economist at Oklahoma State University who grew up near Flathead Lake and attended Montana State University, noted the practical complexity of tracking meat through processing systems. “You bring in a banana. You can follow a banana. It stays a banana. You bring in cattle and you’re going to take them apart into thousands and thousands of different products,” Peel said, illustrating why mandatory origin tracking for beef proved far more complicated than for other foods.
Current Support and Legislative Status
The push to restore mandatory labeling enjoys backing from Montana’s congressional delegation. U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy and U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke have both endorsed the policy. Zinke co-sponsored legislation in 2025 to reinstate mandatory country-of-origin labeling, though the measure stalled in Congress.
Support for the policy remains concentrated in Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas, regions where ranching remains economically vital. The issue carries deeper political resonance in Montana following the 2024 defeat of longtime U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, who had championed mandatory labeling as a state legislator in the early 2000s and continued advocating for it during his Senate tenure.
The labeling debate has persisted for more than two decades without resolution. Some foods already carry mandatory origin labeling—poultry, fish, and fruits all require country-of-origin disclosure. In January, the USDA tightened requirements for the “Product of the U.S.A.” label, mandating that animals be born, raised, slaughtered, and processed in the United States to carry that designation, a step advocates view as a partial step toward transparency but insufficient compared to full mandatory labeling requirements.
Whether Congress will revisit the issue remains uncertain, but the coalition of Montana and regional producers shows no signs of abandoning the effort despite the economic headwinds and trade complications that led to the original repeal.
