Legal Planning for Specialty Crop Producers

Understanding Liability Protections, Regulatory Processes, and Other Legal Risks

A multi-part 2022 educational series to assist Pennsylvania specialty crop producers successfully augment wholesale sales revenue with income from direct sales, pick-your-own, value-added commodity processing, or agritourism, agritainment & educational activities, Penn State Law’s Center for Agricultural and Shale Law is conducting an educational series of workshops and webinars over the coming year about the prevention and planning necessary to best avoid contractual, tort, and regulatory liabilities in conducting income-augmenting activities.

How to Register

For your convenience, we have created a single registration page for all webinar sessions in this series. Upon registration, you will receive a personalized zoom link and will automatically receive reminders for each webinar in the series. You may opt out of email notifications at any time. Registrants who attend one or more webinar sessions will receive a complimentary copy of the curriculum when the series is concluded. In addition, these webinars will be recorded and made available for viewing to producers who register for the series at any time.

Schedule

Topic #1
Legal Liability Risks from Business Invitees on the Farm

This topic will examine the ways in which legal liability can arise from the care, custody, and control of real estate upon which visitors are invited for the purpose of doing business with a specialty crop producer, as well as liability insurance coverage, waivers, etc.

• Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2022, 12 noon, via ZOOM.
• In-person preview: Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, 11:00 am, Hershey PA (as part of the Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention)
• PowerPoint slides

 Topic #2
Legal Liabilities in Selling Raw and Processed Specialty Crop Products

This topic will educate producers on the various theories of contractual, warranty, and common law legal liabilities, including “products liability,” that can arise from the production and sale of both raw agricultural products and value-added processed products, as well as how insurance may protect against such claims.

• Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2022, 12 noon, via ZOOM.
• In-person preview: Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022, 9:00 am, in-person, Lancaster PA (as part of the PASA Sustainable Agriculture Convention)
• PowerPoint slides

Topic # 3
Business Structures for Operational Resilience and Liability Avoidance

This topic will review the various forms of business entity structures that may be employed by specialty crop producers, the attributes and pros and cons of each, the formalities that must be followed to maintain financial and legal liability protections.

• Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022, 12 noon, via ZOOM.

Recap & Feedback
Legal Planning for Specialty Crop Producers

This session will be an in-person workshop summarizing the content and materials from Topics #1 – #3, with substantial time devoted to producer Q&A and the solicitation of feedback to ensure that topics covered throughout this project are meeting the interests of specialty crop producers.

• Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, time & location TBD, Rock Springs, PA (as part of Penn State Ag Progress Days)

Topic #4
Licensing and Regulatory Obligations in Selling Raw and Processed Specialty Crop Products

This topic will educate producers on the state laws and county/municipal ordinances that regulate the activity of producing and selling foods for human consumption, including health/food code licensing requirements for the storage, production and sale of food, sales tax licensing and collection, and other regulatory requirements that may apply in particular contexts, venues, or jurisdictions.

• Wednesday Nov. 16, 2022, 12 noon, via ZOOM.

Topic #5
Municipal Law & Zoning for Agritourism / Agritainment, Specialty Crop Processing & Sales

This topic will provide producers an understanding of local municipal government requirements and procedure for permits and approvals that may be required for agritourism, agritainment, processing, and sales activities conducted in conjunction with the production of specialty crops.

• Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, 12 noon, via ZOOM.

Topic #6
Statutory Protections/Restrictions: Understanding PA’s Ag Area Security, Right-To-Farm, ACRE, and Clean & Green Laws for Specialty Crop Producers

This topic will instruct producers on how to understand the scope of, and potentially employ, the various statutory protections in Pennsylvania law for agricultural operations, and frequently also available in other jurisdictions.  It will also examine business operation limitations that arise from voluntary enrollment in governmental benefit programs which seek to preserve agricultural uses of land.

• Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, 12 noon, via ZOOM. 

Recap & Final Focus 

This session will be an in-person workshop summarizing the content and materials from Topics #1 – #6, with substantial time devoted to producer Q &A and the solicitation of feedback to ensure that topics covered throughout this project met the interests of specialty crop producers.

• Live: to be conducted as part of the 2023 PASA Sustainable Agriculture Conference

These presentations are created as part of the Pennsylvania Specialty Crop Block Grant Program