Meat groups win round in food safety case

Pigs that can't stand up on their own may still be butchered and their meat sold for human consumption despite a state law designed to prevent that, a federal judge ruled Thursday in Fresno. The law, which took effect Jan. 1, made it illegal for anyone to butcher and sell animals too sick to stand. But slaughterhouses argued that the law was too broad and caused meat from healthy animals to go to waste. At issue was whether the state law could take precedence over a 102-year-old federal law also designed to protect food safety. U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. O'Neill ruled that it couldn't...the National Meat Association and the American Meat Institute challenged the law, saying federal law preempts state law. O'Neill agreed, citing the 1907 Federal Meat Inspection Act. "The very purpose of the FIMA is to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply and to minimize the risk to public health from potentially dangerous food and drug products," O'Neill wrote...Fresno Bee