Dive Summary:
- Right in the middle of the European horse meat scandal, a New Mexico ranch may begin processing horses for the first time on U.S. soil since 2006.
- The company actually sued the U.S.D.A. when the agency did not provide adequate inspections, thus preventing the ranch from producing horse meat.
- The suit was won, however, and the U.S.D.A. is set to inspect and certify the ranch, and while the Obama administration was looking to renew a bill that kept horses from being slaughtered in the U.S., that bill lapsed in 2011.
From the article:
The plant, in Roswell, N.M., is owned by Valley Meat Company, which sued the U.S.D.A. and its Food Safety and Inspection Service last fall over the lack of inspection services for horses going to slaughter. Horse meat cannot be processed for human consumption in the United States without inspection by the U.S.D.A., so horses destined for that purpose have been shipped to places like Mexico and Canada for slaughter. ...
