Oregon Public Broadcasting

Pretty soon grocery stores will be required to tell where the meat and produce in your shopping basket has been raised or grown.

The federal law is ramping up now, and will be mandatory by early spring.

But one Washington cattleman has sued the federal government, saying the law costs producers and processors too much to comply. Richland correspondent Anna King reports.

Pasco feedlot owner Cody Easterday filed suit to force the Agriculture Department to postpone its rules for beef labeling.

Easterday operates a large cattle feedlot. Many of his animals come from Canada.  Easterday says he faces higher recordkeeping costs and lower profits on foreign-born cattle.  

By contrast, the Washington Cattlemen’s Association figures country of origin labeling will help smaller Northwest producers who breed and raise their cattle here at home.

Jack Field: "I think it’s a little premature that we make any decision one way or the other."

Jack Field is spokesman of the cattlemen’s group.

Jack Field: "There still hasn’t been an opportunity for everyone throughout the beef chain, whether you are a small producer or a large retailer, to get phased in and become 100 percent compliant."

Small ranchers have long said that cheap Canadian and Mexican cattle have depressed prices in the Northwest.  But processors say there aren’t enough local cattle in the Northwest to keep their plants busy.