Animal Agriculture

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USDA published proposed Rule 85 FR 18471 on April 2, 2020 that would,

amend the animal disease regulations to provide for a National List of Reportable Animal Diseases, along with reporting responsibilities for animal health professionals that encounter or suspect cases of communicable animal diseases and disease agents. These proposed changes are necessary to streamline

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In Part 1 of this blog, we discussed the new interim guidance for meat processing plants.  To combat concerns of a devastating reduction in our food supply chain, President Trump issued an Executive Order requiring processing plants to stay open.  Despite that order, some employees at these processing plants have expressed an intent not to…

Workers in essential industries are increasingly concerned about their health and safety in the workplace. This is most clearly evidenced by the recent strikes, or threats of strikes, by employees at large manufacturing and distribution centers. Further, meat processing plants are reporting an increasing number of employees contracting COVID-19, requiring these plants to shut down…

Direct Action Everywhere practices what it calls “Open Rescue” which involves criminal trespass and stealing animals raised by farmers, ranchers and breeders, and believes such conduct should be legal because they are opposed to raising animals for food and biomedical research.

The animals rights group has worked with councilpersons in California to introduce resolutions that…

Reposted with permission from CHRISTINE ALVARADO. First published on Meatingplace.com on August 23, 2019. https://www.meatingplace.com/Industry/Blogs/Details/87218

One of my previous blogs on April 5, 2019, “The Pecking order in a Straight Run Barn” mentioned some work my colleagues were conducting to survey women leaders in science and agriculture.

The focus of this survey was…

People who observe Halal and Kosher religious practices are increasingly faced with a threat to the prohibition of such slaughter practices in certain countries.  Many Muslim and Jewish observers follow dietary religious laws if they eat meat.  Specifically, livestock and poultry must be slaughtered following strict rules, requiring that the animal is healthy at the…

In the ongoing controversy over a series of nuisance suits regarding eastern North Carolinian hog-farming operations, a collection of advocacy groups have now filed a constitutional challenge to the North Carolina General Assembly’s recent amendments to the Right to Farm Act (the “Act”) (detailed here) in Wake County Superior Court. Rural Empowerment Ass’n…

In recent years, farmers and ranchers have been increasingly targeted by animal rights groups trespassing on their properties, stealing farm animals, and other acts of vandalism. The frequency with which undercover animal rights groups infiltrate farms, ranches and other animal enterprises as undercover employees is increasing. In light of this increased activity, farmers and ranchers…

Beef producers and packers have been required for years to “identify hazard points and critical points during beef slaughtering, which is a necessary first step toward developing a hazard analysis and critical control point system to control meat contamination by Escherichia coli O157:H7.”  See R. Guyon, et. al, Hazard Analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Contamination …