Organic Trade Association sues the USDA for refusing to enforce its own organic livestock standards

On January 18, 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published its final rule on organic livestock and poultry production practices, known as the Organic Animal Welfare Rule. This legislation represented the culmination of 14 years of hard work by Congress and organic stakeholders, and contained rules that had to be implemented in a structured way over the next five years. When a White House Memorandum was published just days later requesting a freeze on all recently published or pending rules, the implementation date was extended to 19 May 2017. The USDA then pushed that date back even further, and now the Organic Trade Association (OTA) is suing the regulator for failing to implement its own standards.