Cattle pricing, labelling changes top discussions at NCBA convention

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Canadian Cattlemen’s Association (CCA) executive vice president Dennis Laycraft’s recent trip to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) convention in Nashville was a busy week.

To start, Laycraft met with new leaders of organizations that frequent the convention, who were really appreciative that CCA made the effort to get down there.

On Laycraft’s agenda of issues to discuss was transparency in cattle pricing — as the U.S. is working through legislative initiatives putting requirements on cash trading. The topic generated plenty of discussion amongst the cattle market committee.

In terms of country of origin labelling, scope creep is a concern, entering the realm of making COOL mandatory. Laycraft says that so far, labelling is staying narrowed down to wording — using the word “processed” instead of the word “product,” in the phrase “Product of the U.S.A.”

“It’s one that, candidly, we’re always watching, and we’re very pleased to see our ambassador come out with a very strong statement, over a month ago, that we still have the rights to retaliate,” says Laycraft, if the case that voluntary turns into or is brought in as de facto mandatory.

NCBA is also about to announce their new goals pertaining to sustainability, says Laycraft, gearing up for the UN Food Systems Summit this fall. CCA talks with the NCBA sustainability committee every week to two weeks, and there was a lot of coordination as the two organizations went through the dialogue, back in spring leading into the summer, says Laycraft.

Listen to the full conversation between Laycraft and RealAg Radio host Shaun Haney, below:

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