Center for Agricultural and Shale Law Reflects on Successful June 2025 Webinars

University Park, PA – The Penn State Center for Agricultural and Shale Law concluded a highly active June 2025, successfully hosting three impactful webinars that deepened understanding of vital agricultural legal issues. These events underscored the Center’s commitment to educating agricultural professionals, legal practitioners, and landowners.

On Wednesday, June 18, 2025, Center Director Ross Pifer presented “An Overview of State Grain Dealer Statutes in the United States” as part of the National Agricultural Law Center’s webinar series. The session highlighted the importance of smooth grain marketing chains to agricultural economies, explaining how business failures can negatively impact producers. Director Pifer discussed the common framework and wide variations of state grain dealer statutes, including bonding, indemnity funds, licensing, auditing, failure protocols, liens, and penalties, along with related grain warehouse statutes.

Next, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, Center Staff Attorney Brook Duer presented “Conservation Cornerstone: Pennsylvania Right to Farm Laws” within Penn State Extension’s Conservation Cornerstone series. This webinar focused on Pennsylvania’s Right to Farm Act (1982) and the ACRE law (2005), which limit municipal actions against certain farming practices. The session was particularly beneficial for new agricultural conservation district employees and professionals, offering insights into legislative checks on municipal authority and how these laws operate in Pennsylvania.

The month’s programming concluded on Friday, June 27, 2025, with “Understanding Pennsylvania’s Clean & Green Program: County-Level Administration.” This collaborative webinar between CASL and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s (PDA) Agricultural Business Development Center (ABDC) was part of the Understanding Agricultural Law Educational Series. The program explored Pennsylvania’s Clean and Green Program (C&G), which offers preferential property tax assessments to qualifying farm and forestland owners based on current use, resulting in tax savings. While established by state statute, C&G is administered at the county level, with 60 of 67 counties participating and approximately 11,000,000 acres enrolled. The session addressed crucial county-level administration issues such as acreage enrollment, planning for change of use, rollback assessments, and re-enrollment of eligible land. This program was tailored for attorneys and business advisors working with agricultural clients, with Pennsylvania-licensed attorneys eligible for 1 hour of substantive CLE credit.

These successful June 2025 webinars reinforce the Center for Agricultural and Shale Law’s dedication to providing comprehensive educational resources vital for supporting Pennsylvania’s agricultural economy.