The federal case of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) v. Sonny Perdue was dismissed in late February after hanging around for four years.
HSUS and other animal activists, on Feb. 25, 2020, sued then Secretary of Agriculture Perdue, challenging rules set by the USDA on chicken-slaughter line
Continue Reading Tossed line speed case is coming back
The Dutch food agency identified 5,700 possible violations in red meat and poultry slaughterhouses in the first half of 2022.
The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) said this resulted in 401 written warnings or fines. Most issues found, in the more than 23,600 checks from January to
Continue Reading Dutch figures highlight issues at slaughterhouses; food safety compromised
In 2020, the food and employee safety issue known as line speed became a cause celeb, cited by the union and other activist groups in all sorts of ways. It seemed to come up in all sorts of venues including congressional legislation.
A federal judge in St. Paul struck
Continue Reading Letter from The Editor: Pork producers strike back
It looks like the line-speed issue involving market hogs is going down the Big River for a decision by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis with or without USDA’s help.
On April 1, 2021, a federal judge in St. Paul ruled that the USDA violated the
Continue Reading With or without USDA support, hog producers push line-speed case to the appellate court
Seaboard Foods wants to intervene in UFCW v. USDA “to move to stay the effect of the Court’s forthcoming judgment by 10.5 months as to Seaboard, and for the purpose of perfecting an appeal” with a stay pending appeal if necessary.
A federal court in Minnesota in March ruled that
Continue Reading Is UFCW v. USDA the end or just the beginning of the great line speed debate?
Federal Judge Joan N. Ericksen last October held a 64-minute video hearing and then took the line speed case under advisement. Five months later, she has published a 68-page ruling to resume the speed limits on hog slaughter inspection lines.
Ericksen stayed her order in U.S. District Court for Minnesota
Continue Reading Judge rules line speeds for market hogs must be slowed, stays order for 90 days
Dear Editor,
In her letter “Letter to the Editor: Industry supporter out of line on line speeds,” (https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2020/11/letter-to-the-editor-industry-supporter-out-of-line-on-line-speeds/) Jessica Chapman offers her ad hominem opinion that I am “an industry supporter whose research is harmful to public health” and mistakenly claims that I based my recent publication
Continue Reading Letter to the Editor: Sound science should reflect relevant data
Ahead of her Oct. 13 video conference on swine slaughter line speed, a federal judge in Minnesota is welcoming outside parties to offer their opinions about the case.
Judge Joan N. Ericksen did not yell “Olly Olly oxen free,” but she might as well have by welcoming Amicus Curiae filings
Continue Reading Line-speed arguments set to be heard by video conference on Oct. 13
Line speeds for those with waivers from USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service don’t increase the speeds all that much, but the issue has reached celebrity status thanks to COVID-19.
In the last month, however, line speeds for meat and poultry products are being blamed by the union representing 250,000
Continue Reading Line speeds become a cause in the coronovirus pandemic era
For more than six weeks, a federal judge in Minnesota has been considering whether to dismiss a union challenge of USDA’s regulation of line speeds for swine slaughter.
On the West Coast, in Northern California, a similar challenge to USDA’s regulation of line speeds for poultry won’t get an initial
Continue Reading Poultry and swine line speeds are both now federal cases
