Pork producers lead freedom to farm defense

The National Pork Producers Council led livestock and farm groups in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to fight back against activist attacks on pork producers’ fundamental due process rights and the regulatory foundation of modern livestock production. Earlier this year, a large number of national and state activist groups, led by Food & Water Watch (including Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement and the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network) filed a lawsuit before the court against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Biden Administration. These groups seek fundamental changes to EPA’s concentrated animal feeding operation rules, including that the law should presume pig and other livestock farmers are discharging pollutants into Waters of the United States in violation of the Clean Water Act. They have asked the court to remove application of the long established and congressionally developed exemption for agricultural stormwater from animal fee