Groups fight over COOL in court
August 29, 2013 | 06:38 PM
Two coalitions of defenders of country-of-origin labeling for meat have asked to intervene in a court case filed by nine meat groups to stop the program, just as the groups led by the American Meat Institute told a judge Tuesday that the labeling requirement would cause an undue burden and compel speech in violation of the Constitution.
Judge Ketanji Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave no indication of her leanings, but promised she would rule within two weeks on the most recent request for a preliminary injunction against the Agriculture Department, Politico reported.
AMI and its allies are opposing implementation of a rule that the Agriculture Department has promulgated to comply with a World Trade Organization panel decision that an earlier version of the COOL law passed by Congress in 2008 was in violation of U.S. international trade obligations.
On Friday, R-CALF USA, Food & Water Watch, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and the Western Organization of Resource Councils petitioned the court to allow them to intervene and defend COOL. The attorney for that coalition is Mississippi-based Dudley Butler, a former administrator of the USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.
On August 20, the court granted a motion by the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, National Farmers Union, Consumer Federation of America, and American Sheep Industry Association to intervene in the suit.
Judge Ketanji Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia gave no indication of her leanings, but promised she would rule within two weeks on the most recent request for a preliminary injunction against the Agriculture Department, Politico reported.
AMI and its allies are opposing implementation of a rule that the Agriculture Department has promulgated to comply with a World Trade Organization panel decision that an earlier version of the COOL law passed by Congress in 2008 was in violation of U.S. international trade obligations.
On Friday, R-CALF USA, Food & Water Watch, the South Dakota Stockgrowers Association and the Western Organization of Resource Councils petitioned the court to allow them to intervene and defend COOL. The attorney for that coalition is Mississippi-based Dudley Butler, a former administrator of the USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration.
On August 20, the court granted a motion by the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, National Farmers Union, Consumer Federation of America, and American Sheep Industry Association to intervene in the suit.
