Organic industry gets court win in animal welfare lawsuit

After 10 years of work, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a final rule concerning Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices (OLPP Rule). In a court ruling issued March 12, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed with the Organic Trade Association’s lawsuit against USDA that the final rule was withdrawn by this administration based on a flawed analysis. Finding that USDA had voluntarily conceded OTA’s charges rather than proceed to judgment, the court ordered the matter returned to USDA for a 180-day period to see if USDA can fix its economic modeling errors.  Read more