COOL

Washington ranchers are suing the US Department of Agriculture, because they want American shoppers to know where their beef is coming from. The lawsuit was filed yesterday in Spokane’s Federal District court. Cattlemen want to overturn the USDA’s decision back in March of 2016 that blocked regulations requiring foreign meat producers to label the country of origin of imported beef. 

 

Cattlemen argue that the change in 2016 has allowed imported meat to be sold as US Beef. David Muraskin an attorney for Public Justice said that in this day and age that shoppers want to know where their food comes from.

 

"We're fighting policies that put multinational corporations ahead of domestic producers and shroud the origins of our food supply in secrecy,” said Muraskin. 

 

From 2009 and 2016, the USDA required country-of-origin labeling on all meat until the agency struck down that requirement. The cornerstone of the lawsuit centers on the US Meat Inspection Act, which required that slaughtered meat from other countries be clearly marked. The Department of Agriculture is not commenting on the lawsuit. The lawsuit was brought by Cattle Producers of Washington, the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America.