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NPPC secures 9th circuit court victory for U.S. pork producers

The chief legal counsel for the National Pork Producers Council says a recent court ruling from the 9th circuit court is a major win for the U.S. pork industry.

Michael Formica says animal activist groups tried to make changes to the Environmental Protection Agency’s concentrated animal feeding operation rules.

“This is a win for pork producers and it’s a win for everybody who raises livestock, because it allows farmers to continue having the freedom to farm,” he says. “We get to maintain the system that we have and we have had for decades.”

He tells Brownfield major changes to long-standing federal laws should come from congressional action, not from activists’ organizations.

“Food and Water Watch wanted farmers to be treated as guilty of Clean Water Act violations unless they had turned over mountains of paperwork to EPA, that were proving that they were not violating Clean Water Act,” he says.

The court ultimately upheld EPA’s standing CAFO rules as part of the Clean Water Act.