We're suing the Trump administration to protect public health from contaminated pork.
John,
The Trump administration just repealed meat safety protections that have been in place for more than 100 years.
The new rules will effectively eliminate the federal inspection of pork carcasses for conditions such as septicemia and other causes of food-borne illnesses. Instead, slaughter plants will be allowed to police themselves.1
That's why our sister organization, Food & Water Watch, just filed a lawsuit to stop this dangerous and disgusting food safety rollback immediately.2 But challenging the rules that benefit large corporate pork companies won't be easy.
Over a century ago, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle exposed appalling conditions in the meatpacking industry, and the Federal Meat Inspection Act followed within months. The Jungle was a work of fiction, but its details were based in reality: the industry was barely regulated, brutally exploitative of its workers and entirely unconcerned with food safety.
Old, dirty and diseased meat was regularly mislabeled and sold. The Federal Meat Inspection Act that came next required meat inspectors to critically examine each and every animal for diseases before slaughter, and each and every carcass and part for fecal matter, afterward.
But Trump's new rules prevent this inspection of the swine industry — rolling the clock back a hundred years and allowing slaughter companies to police themselves. They also raise limits on slaughter-line speeds, making it harder to prevent food-borne illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. We also know that self-inspection does not work. Time and time again the poultry industry has failed to meet food safety standards for that reason.3
Trump's regulations put everyone in this country who eats pork in danger.
Food & Water Action and its affiliated organization, Food & Water Watch, are advocacy groups with a common mission to protect our food, water and climate. This email was sent to [email protected] - and we're glad you got it, because it's one of the most important ways you can reclaim political power, hold elected officials accountable and resist corporate control.
