Eleven months into the Trump administration, the Agriculture Department decided it lacks statutory authority to implement the livestock welfare rules that it wrote for organic farmers, and will announce today that it is killing the regulation. Groups representing conventional agriculture cheered the decision, which was disclosed at the end of last week, while the organic industry and its allies in Congress said USDA disregarded public sentiment and “could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative.”
In a notice on the Agricultural Marketing Service website, USDA said it “believes the OLPP (Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices) final rule exceeded USDA’s statutory authority … ” The livestock rule was issued in the final weeks of the Obama administration. It had been a decade in the making. With Trump officials in charge, the USDA delayed implementation of the livestock rule three times, most recently on Nov. 9, when it said it might rewrite the rule.
The organic livestock rule requires farmers to provide outdoor access for their livestock and poultry on all but the hottest or coldest days. It effectively ends the practice of confining egg-laying hens in small “battery cages” and requires group housing of hogs. The standards draw a contrast with large-scale conventional farms, which use battery cages, so-called sow crates and veal-calf stalls that closely confine animals in the name of efficiency and labor savings.
“It makes no sense that the Trump administration would pursue actions that could damage a marketplace that is giving American farmers a profitable alternative, creating jobs, and improving the economies of our rural areas,” said the Organic Trade Association, which sued USDA in September for holding up the rule. The OTA amended its lawsuit a week ago in anticipation that USDA would decide to abandon the livestock rule.
“This is like the net neutrality rule all over again,” said Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio, Rosa DeLauro, Ron Kind and Chellie Pingree in a joint statement. They said the administration was following “its own politicized wishes. This undermining of the public process is absolutely indefensible and should not be allowed to stand.”
Senate Agriculture chairman Pat Roberts said the livestock rule would have been “costly and burdensome regulation” that weighed on organic farmers. “By withdrawing this rule, the Trump administration is again demonstrating its commitment to deregulate rural America.”
The National Pork Producers Council said it agreed that USDA is limited to regulation of feeding and medication practices on organic farms. It said production practices “have nothing to do with the basic concept of ‘organic.'”
In its Federal Register notice, the USDA said it was empowered to oversee healthcare practices for livestock on organic farms, but that its authority does not “encompass stand-alone animal welfare concerns” because Congress did not explicitly say that it did.
Organic food accounts for more than 5 percent of U.S. food sales and is a fast-growing sector in the grocery industry. As the industry has grown and expanded its range of products, relations with conventional agriculture have become increasingly fractious.
The Federal Register notice on withdrawal of the organic livestock rule is available here. There is a 30-day comment period.