Farm Sanctuary v. U.S. Department of Agriculture

The federal district court for the Western District of New York denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) final rule establishing an optional new inspection system for hog slaughter establishments. The court concluded that the plaintiffs had sufficiently established standing at this stage of the litigation, including for their National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) claim, which asserted that USDA should not have relied on a categorical exclusion, including because “extraordinary circumstances” required preparation of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement. The alleged extraordinary circumstances related to the potential adverse environmental effects, including “supply-level” effects such as the risk of climate change due to increases in emissions of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide at concentrated animal feeding operations.

A lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) final rule establishing an optional new inspection system for hog slaughter establishments included a claim that the USDA violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by determining that the rule was categorically excluded from NEPA review. The complaint—filed by seven nonprofit organizations in the federal district court for the Western District of New York—asserted that even if the general terms of the USDA’s categorical exclusion for the actions of the Food Safety and Inspection Service could cover the rule, “extraordinary circumstances” existed that required preparation of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement. Those circumstances related to the significant adverse environmental effects that the plaintiffs alleged would result from the increase in pig demand and slaughter numbers that the USDA projected in its economic benefits analysis. The plaintiffs alleged that the potential environmental effects included “supply-level” effects, including increasing the risk of climate change due to increases in emissions of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide at concentrated animal feeding operations.