Lawsuit Claims Sale Of Pork Slogan Routes Fed Money To Lobbyists

A lawsuit targeting the quasi-governmental National Pork Board and naming Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack as the defendant, dismissed in 2013 by a district court for lack of standing, has been reinstated by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Plaintiffs include the Humane Society and a pork farmer who claims his check-off fees are being misused by the $60 million deal, payable at $3 million per year, that is at issue in the lawsuit: The National Pork Board pays the National Pork Producers Council for rights to the slogan “The Other White Meat,” which has been discontinued. The lawsuit alleges that the slogan is worth nowhere near $60 million,  and the deal effectively routes money to a lobbying trade group, providing a significant share of its budget, and thus helps to finance its opposition to the Humane Society’s efforts to improve the treatment of farm animals. The three-judge panel said that the plaintiffs’ inference that the slogan is now worth far less than sale price is justified, now that it’s no longer the board’s primary brand identity.