USDA Wins Dismissal of Lawsuit Over Poultry Line Speed Waivers

The US Department of Agriculture convinced a federal magistrate judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a process that allows poultry producers to increase line speeds to 175 birds per minute.

The Humane Society of the United States and other nonprofit groups lacked standing to sue the agency over line-speed waivers introduced in 2018 to its “new poultry inspection system,” Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on Thursday.

Citing a “changed regulatory landscape,” Beeler said the groups failed to show their alleged harms were traceable to the 2018 criteria for waivers ...