A federal judge denied Seaboard Foods’ motion to delay a return to pork line speed limits and three other processors’ requests for reinstatement of waivers. The decision issued on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota could raise costs for meatpackers like Seaboard Foods and Clemens Food Group and slow meat production after COVID-19 outbreaks in slaughterhouses limited output last year, Reuters reported.
U.S. pork processor Seaboard Foods wanted a 10-1/2-month delay to a federal court decision that would force it to slow the speed of hog slaughtering at a massive Oklahoma pork plant, Reuters reported. The elimination of line speeds was part of USDA’s New Swine Inspection System, which also lets pork plants use some company inspectors instead of USDA ones.
Seaboard Foods was the first U.S. pork company to invest in machinery to run line speeds faster under the rule. Seaboard had adapted its Guymon, Okla., pork plant after line speeds were eliminated as part of USDA’s New Swine Inspection System.
Over the course of 10-1/2 months, Reuters reports that Seaboard’s production pipeline will produce about 126,000 more hogs than the company can slaughter under the previous speed limit of 1,106 pigs per hour, Stephen Summerlin, senior vice president of operations, said in the documents.
In March, U.S. District Court Judge Joan Ericksen vacated USDA’s rule allowing pork packers to slaughter with unlimited line speeds, agreeing with the United Food and Commercial Workers’ argument that the agency had violated the Administrative Procedure Act and potentially put workers at risk.
In addition, three other processors, Quality Pork Processors Inc., WholeStone Farms Cooperative Inc. and Clemens Food Group, asked the court to intervene to clarify that the judgment throwing out the USDA rule also reinstated waivers that had previously allowed them to increase their line speeds.
All motions were denied by Erickson who said they were not timely, and the court had concluded its consideration of the merits of the case.
More from Farm Journal’s PORK:
U.S. Pork Processor Seeks to Delay Court Decision Limiting Slaughter Speeds
Federal Court Removes Swine Slaughter Line Speed Provision
Union Representing Pork Processing Plant Workers Sues USDA
Industry Groups File Brief in Support of New Swine Inspection System
