The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been served with a federal lawsuit this week by three groups--Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America, and the Cattle Producers of Washington--all ranchers who want imported meat labels to display what country those products originated from.
Last spring, USDA decided against including country-of-origin labels on meat products, a practice that was in place from 2009 to 2016. The ranchers claim that undoing this regulation is in violation of the U.S.’s Meat Inspection Act, which does require meat slaughtered in other countries to be labeled and identified as such.