A coalition of 207 farm, faith, environmental, labor, rural and consumer organizations delivered a message this week to the Senate urging lawmakers to “reject any effort to repeal, rescind or weaken country of origin labeling (COOL) in any federal spending legislation.”

“Congress needs to stay the course on COOL and leave it alone, especially now that the Obama administration has appealed the current decision to the WTO,” said National Farmers Union president Roger Johnson. “COOL has been embraced by consumers who want to know where their food comes from and by family farmers who are proud to provide that information.”

The U.S. Trade Representative announced last week that they would appeal the recent World Trade Organization ruling that found the COOL rules for beef and pork were non-compliant with international trade obligations. Johnson says the USTR decision is “the right thing to do for American family farmers, ranchers and consumers.”

The Consumer Federation of America (CFA) also signed on to the letter and Director of the organization’s Food Policy Institute Chris Waldrop echoed Johnson’s assertion that consumers support country of origin labeling. “In fact, they want even more information about the source of their meat including where the animal was born, raised and slaughtered,” said Waldrop. “Congress should not deny consumers this important information.”

The appeals process is expected to take several months and the organizations that signed the letter believe it could be successful appeal because they say the WTO overestimated the costs and underestimated the benefits of the labels. In addition, the groups say the WTO “inappropriately suggested that COOL caused declining livestock exports to the United States.”