Source: Jennifer Shike, Farm Journal’s Pork, 27 May 2021, photo credit: Reveal/Imaginechina via AP Images
USDA will not seek to overturn a court ruling ordering pork packing plants to operate at slower line speeds, USDA said in a constituent update on Wednesday.
“The Court stayed the order for 90 days to give the agency and the impacted plants time to adjust. At this time, establishments operating under NSIS should prepare to revert to a maximum line speed of 1,106 head per hour on June 30, 2021,” USDA wrote.
On March 31, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota vacated a portion of FSIS’ final rule establishing a voluntary “New Swine Slaughter Inspection System” (NSIS). According to the update, the court found that FSIS violated the Administrative Procedure Act because it asked for comments on the impact of line speed increases on worker safety in the proposed rule but did not consider these comments in the final rule.
The court vacated the rule only insofar as it eliminated the maximum line speed cap for NSIS establishments. The other provisions of the final rule were not affected by the court’s decision.
“USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service is committed to worker safety and ensuring a safe, reliable food supply,” USDA wrote in the update. “We will work with the establishments to comply with the court’s ruling and minimize disruptions to the supply chain.”
Irreparable harm will be exacted on small U.S. hog farmers when this court order goes into effect at the end of June 2021, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) said in a statement on Thursday.
“We are disappointed with USDA’s decision to support a flawed federal district court decision to strike down line-speed provisions of the New Swine Inspection System that have been successfully evaluated and tested since the Clinton administration,” NPPC said. “Based on more than 20 years of development, NSIS line speeds have been proven to safely support much-needed pork processing capacity in the United States.”
NPPC plans to continue to pursue all avenues to reverse a court decision that will lead to pork industry consolidation and increased packer market power.
Source
The South African Pork Producers’ Organisation (SAPPO) coordinates industry interventions and collaboratively manages risks in the value chain to enable the sustainability and profitability of pork producers in South Africa.
