Opposed to feed additive | FDA says studies show the drug is safe but critics claim it causes pigs to suffer and may affect human health
CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — Environmental and public health groups are suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in federal court over ractopamine.
The groups want the court to set aside the FDA’s approvals for the feed additive, which is used to boost the weight of cattle and pigs.
The beta-agonist additive has been used for more than a decade in the U.S. agriculture industry to build lean muscle instead of fat.
However, it has been barred by some major meat importers around the globe. China last year began requiring third party verification that U.S. pork products are ractopamine-free.
Read Also
Petition launched over grazing lease controversy
Battle continues between the need for generation of tax revenue from irrigation and the preservation of native grasslands in southern Alberta rural municipality.
Beta-agonists boost an animal’s ability to convert calories to marketable meat.
In two separate but related lawsuits filed in the U.S. district court of northern California, the groups challenged the FDA’s approvals from 2008-14 of 11 new animal drug applications.
The approvals allow use of ractopamine as the sole active ingredient and paired with antibiotics, some of which fall into the same class of drugs deemed critical for human health.
The groups, which include the Humane Society of the United States, United Farm Workers of America and the Center for Food Safety, say in the lawsuits that the FDA failed to fully follow the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it approved these drugs.
The law requires federal agencies to consider and report on the environmental impacts of their actions, such as how use of a livestock drug might affect the environment or human health.
The complaints allege that the FDA did not adequately assess the impact of ractopamine on food safety, the environment, animal welfare and farm workers.
The suits ask the court to set aside FDA’s approvals of ractopamine-based animal drugs since 2008 and comply with NEPA before approving ractopamine-based products in the future.
The FDA first approved ractopamine for use in commercially raised hogs in 1999.
It has previously said it stands by that decision and that the drugs’ safety has been corroborated four times. Industry analysts estimate that more than half of all U.S. hogs raised for meat are fed ractopamine.
The lawsuits cite FDA documents known as adverse event reports, which detail examples of ractopamine-fed pigs becoming sick, suffering from hoof disorders and dying before slaughter.
“Pigs in a research barn squeal when they take steps, as if in pain,” according to one lawsuit, brought by the Humane Society, Farm Workers and the Animal Legal Defense Fund.
