Last Thursday, advocacy groups including the Center for Food Safety ("CFS"), the Center for Biological Diversity, and Sierra Club sued FDA over the Agency's approval of ractopamine-based drugs used to increase the growth of livestock. The drugs, first approved by FDA in 1999, are widely used in hogs. The groups are challenging FDA's approval of the drugs, arguing that the Agency neglected to study the necessary environmental analysis and that the drugs are leaching into waterways, contaminating wildlife and water supplies, and are toxic to various species. The advocacy groups also argue that the drugs are associated with high stress levels in animals, lameness, hyperactivity, broken limbs, hoof lesions, and death. The European Union, China, and Russia have banned U.S. pork products made from pigs fed ractopamine drugs. Last year, CFS and the Animal Legal Defense Fund challenged FDA's withholding of records related to the ractopamine approval.
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