EPA Announces Action to Support Lower Food Prices for Americans and Reduce Burden on American Farmers by Addressing Meat and Poultry Discharge Regulations 

At Christensen Farms in Minnesota, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a final action imposing no additional wastewater discharge regulations on meat and poultry processing facilities. This action advances the Trump Administration’s successful efforts to support a lower cost of living for American families and American farmers while protecting human health and the environment. 

“The Powering the Great American Comeback initiative is about supporting Americans by reducing the cost of living and advancing economic growth while protecting our nation’s air, land, and water,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “For the past four years, people in this country experienced the worst inflation in nearly five decades. EPA is saving billions of dollars in costs the American people would otherwise see in the prices of the meat and poultry they buy at the grocery store while ensuring the protection of human health and the environment.” 

“Today’s decision reflects a commonsense approach that protects America’s meat and poultry processors and the farmers and ranchers they serve  from unnecessary red tape. By rejecting this costly and burdensome rule proposal by the previous administration, the Trump Administration is ensuring that small and mid-sized meat and poultry facilities can keep their doors open, continue feeding our communities, and support good-paying jobs across rural America. This action strengthens our food supply chain while respecting the hard work of producers who are the backbone of agriculture,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins.

“Farmers and ranchers rely on processers to help get meat and poultry to America’s dinner tables in a way that protects our natural resources. Heavy-handed regulations that would have created serious obstacles in processing would ultimately hurt the farmers raising the meat and poultry we enjoy. Farm Bureau appreciates EPA’s reasoned approach to guidelines for meat and poultry processing facilities that protects our natural resources and our stable food supply,” said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall.

“This important decision by Administrator Zeldin ends a regulatory disaster that would have forced meat processing facilities to close, causing food prices to go up and hardship for livestock and poultry producers,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “We are grateful for the swift action of the Trump Administration to put the consumer first and eliminate burdensome regulations that destroy jobs.”

“The National Pork Producers Council applauds the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Zeldin for taking a commonsense approach on the Meat & Poultry Processing Rule. As proposed by the previous administration, this rule which provides no environmental benefits would have been devastating to small- and medium-sized meat processors across the country and the livestock farmers who rely on them as markets for their animals. EPA’s action today will save not only the nearly 100 local meat processors that EPA previously identified would have to close down but also the thousands of family farmers who rely on them to stay in livestock production, and it will help ensure affordable, nutritious American-grown pork can continue to be served on dinner tables across the country,” said National Pork Producers Council President Duane Stateler.