Authors Tonsor, Lusk, Schroeder and Taylor summarized the following key findings of economic importance to consumer demand response to MCOOL implementation:
"1. Demand for covered meat products has not been impacted by MCOOL implementation.
- Across a series of demand system models estimated using retail grocery scanner data of MCOOL covered products, changes in consumer demand following MCOOL implementation were not detected. That is, no evidence of a demand increase in covered beef, pork, or chicken products, as a result of MCOOL, was identified.
2. Typical U.S. residents are unaware of MCOOL and do not look for meat origin information.
- In an online survey, 23% of respondents were aware of MCOOL, 12% incorrectly believed MCOOL was not law and nearly two-thirds of respondents "don't know" whether MCOOL is a law. Similarly, the majority of in-person experiment participants did not know whether MCOOL was in place, despite the fact that they were standing near a retail meat counter. Furthermore, the majority of in-person participants also stated they never look for origin information when shopping for fresh beef or pork products.
3. Consumers regularly indicate they prefer meat products carrying origin information. However, consumers reveal similar valuations of alternative origin labels.
- In both online and in-person assessments, research participants regularly select meat products carrying origin information over unlabeled alternatives consistent with previous research. However, in an online assessment, consumers revealed valuations of meat products labeled "Product of North America" to be approximately the same as "Product of United States."
4. Our conclusions hold across the species and products evaluated.
- In our in-person and online based assessments, we obtain the same conclusions whether evaluating beef steak, pork chop, or chicken breast products – there was no change in demand following implementation of MCOOL. Similarly, in estimated demand systems we regularly found no change in demand for beef, pork, or chicken products."
They concluded the following from their study:
"The overriding finding of limited awareness of MCOOL, narrow use of origin information in purchasing decisions, and no evidence of a demand impact following MCOOL implementation is consistent with the argument that voluntary labeling by country of origin would have occurred if it were economically beneficial to do so. More broadly, the findings of this project generally support the assertions of MCOOL opponents who have asked "where is the market failure?" While no one project can resolve all the political and economic issues surrounding the MCOOL situation, it is our hope that the findings of these studies will be utilized to improve decision making regarding the policy going forward."
Their full report is available at: http://www.agmanager.info/livestock/policy/Tonsor_KSU_FactSheet_MCOOL_11-13-12.pdf