A potentially precedent setting case in the US is being brought to a district court in Pennsylvania over the right to impose controls on a special kind of meat producer - a so-called “private membership association” farm business. These producers, who sell to a restricted group of consumers, have thus far operated beyond the reach of US federal food safety and quality regulations.

Earlier this month, the US Attorney’s Office filed a civil suit on behalf of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) of the US Department of Agriculture against Miller’s Organic Farm, located in Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, and its owner, Amos Miller, for continuing to sell non-federally-inspected meat and poultry products using unauthorised labelling and packaging to consumers located throughout the United States.

Amos Miller told GlobalMeatNews that his self-organised private membership association should be constitutionally protected under the US constitution’s first and 14th amendments (on free speech and the right to make a living), and as such, should be beyond the reach of federal food safety regulations.

Full read on: GlobalMeatNews