![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/45000/images/_48967_bumpersticker150.jpg)
The area around Amarillo, Texas where the trial will take place produces 25 percent of America's grain-fed cattle, and the city's biggest private employer is a slaughterhouse.
Oprah Winfrey's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to get her case moved to Dallas claiming that they could not get an impartial jury.
Stopped cold
In April 1996 she invited ex-rancher Howard Lyman onto her program.
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He alleged that feeding ground-up animal parts to cattle was a common practice and "if only one of them has mad cow disease it has the potential to infect thousands."
On hearing this, she said: "It has just stopped me cold from eating another burger."
Beef price nose-dive
Within minutes of the broadcast, beef prices fell to their lowest levels in years.
Paul Engler, an Amarillo rancher, and other plaintiffs claimed her statement caused them to lose $12m, and have sued her for damages using new so-called "veggie libel" laws.
These laws, which opponents see as unconstitutional barriers to free speech, forbid criticism of food products unless it is backed by scientific evidence.
The US ordered a halt to the practice of feeding most animal parts to cattle last year.
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on BSE
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