Court Dismisses Animal ID Suit

A federal judge has dismissed a Michigan farmer-led lawsuit seeking a halt to a national program that identifies individual livestock and poultry to track the movements of diseased animals, according to the Associated Press.

The Judge wrote in a decision that the National Animal Identification System is neither a federal law nor a federal regulation. It is instead, the judge wrote, an identification and tracking program developed by the USDA and adopted by state ag departments on a voluntary basis.

The civil suit was filed by the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund. The Falls Church, Va.-based legal group represents farmers and consumers who follow the sustainable-agriculture movement promoting the production of healthy and affordable food using environmentally sound farming practices.

The organization, along with more than a dozen farmers, all but one of whom was from Michigan, sued the USDA last September.