The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to re-hear a meatpacker lawsuit challenging USDA’s country-of-origin meat-labeling rules, said Feedstuffs. The lawsuit dates from 2013, when the labeling rules, the second iteration by USDA, took effect. They require labels on package of beef, pork and chicken meat that say where the animals yielding the meat were born, raised and slaughtered. U.S. meatpackers and allied trade groups argued the rules were a violation of constitutional guarantees of free speech.
The upholding of the U.S. labels by the appellate court was a counterpoint to the Oct 20 World Trade Organization decision that the rules distort international trade by discriminating against livestock from Canada and Mexico. It was the second time in two years WTO ruled against the United States. The ruling obliges the United States to revise the rules or face retaliatory tariffs. An appeal is possible.
“COOL became the law of the land because consumers want to know where their food comes from and ranchers and farmers are happy to provide that information,” said president Roger Johnson of the National Farmers Union. He said the meat industry should drop “the senseless litigation.”