7 U.S.C. § 1638
Section 1638 · Definitions
Amended 6 times on record
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case American Meat Institute v. United States Department of Agriculture (2014)
Most recently applied in Ctia the Wireless Ass'n v. City of Berkeley (July 2019)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
In this subchapter:
The term “covered commodity” means—
muscle cuts of lamb and venison;
ground lamb and ground venison;
farm-raised fish;
wild fish;
a perishable agricultural commodity;
peanuts; and 1
meat produced from goats;
chicken, in whole and in part;
ginseng;
pecans; and
macadamia nuts.
The term “covered commodity” does not include an item described in subparagraph (A) if the item is an ingredient in a processed food item.
The term “farm-raised fish” includes—
farm-raised shellfish; and
fillets, steaks, nuggets, and any other flesh from a farm-raised fish or shellfish.
The term “food service establishment” means a restaurant, cafeteria, lunch room, food stand, saloon, tavern, bar, lounge, or other similar facility operated as an enterprise engaged in the business of selling food to the public.
The term “lamb” means meat, other than mutton, produced from sheep.
The terms “perishable agricultural commodity” and “retailer” have the meanings given the terms in section 499a(b) of this title.
The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Agricultural Marketing Service.
The term “wild fish” means naturally-born or hatchery-raised fish and shellfish harvested in the wild.
The term “wild fish” includes a fillet, steak, nugget, and any other flesh from wild fish or shellfish.
The term “wild fish” excludes net-pen aquacultural or other farm-raised fish.
1 So in original. The word “and” probably should not appear.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
Pub. L. 110–234 and Pub. L. 110–246 made identical amendments to this section. The amendments by Pub. L. 110–234 were repealed by section 4(a) of Pub. L. 110–246.
Amendments
2015—Pub. L. 114–113 redesignated pars. (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (8), and (9) as pars. (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), and (7), respectively, in par. (1)(A)(i) struck out references to beef and pork, in par. (1)(A)(ii) struck out references to ground beef and ground pork, and struck out former pars. (1) and (7), which defined “beef” and “pork”, respectively .
2014—Par. (2)(A)(i). Pub. L. 113–79, § 12104(b)(1)(A), substituted “pork, and venison” for “and pork”.
Par. (2)(A)(ii). Pub. L. 113–79, § 12104(b)(1)(B), substituted “ground pork, and ground venison” for “and ground pork”.
2008—Par. (2)(A)(vii) to (xi). Pub. L. 110–246, § 11002(1), added cls. (vii) to (xi).
Effective Date of 2008 Amendment
Amendment of this section and repeal of Pub. L. 110–234 by Pub. L. 110–246 effective May 22, 2008, the date of enactment of Pub. L. 110–234, see section 4 of Pub. L. 110–246, set out as an Effective Date note under section 8701 of this title.