Agricultural Antitrust
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending November 11, 2022
Agricultural Antitrust: Federal Court Denies Tyson’s Motion to Dismiss Poultry Renderers’ Antitrust Suit 🌾
On November 8, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia issued an order denying a motion to dismiss filed by River Valley Ingredients, LLC; Tyson Poultry, Inc.; and Tyson Farms, Inc.—the defendants in an antitrust case filed by three southeast poultry rendering companies. American Proteins, Inc. v. River Valley Ingredients, LLC, No. 2:22-cv-00091. According to the complaint, filed May 11, 2022, River Valley and Tyson acquired ten-year exclusive contracts with Wayne Farms and Koch Foods, two of the plaintiff […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending September 30, 2022
Industrial Hemp: Hemp Farmer Files Federal Suit Against South Carolina For Arrest and Crop Destruction
On September 16, 2022, South Carolina hemp farmer John Trenton Pendarvis filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina against numerous executive branch officials alleging due process violations and conspiracy for Pendarvis’s arrest and the seizure and destruction of Pendarvis’s hemp crop in September 2019. Pendarvis v. Wilson, No. 2:22-cv-03142. Pendarvis was arrested and his hemp crop was destroyed without notice or a hearing after a July 2019 inspection revealed that the crop was planted on coordinates different […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending September 23, 2022
Dairy Policy: Pennsylvania’s Over-Order Premium Continues But ‘Should be Modified’ 🌾
On September 21, 2022, the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board (PMMB) entered a new 90-day over-order premium (OOP) order (OGO No. A-1014), as opposed to its customary 180-day order. The order continues Pennsylvania’s OOP at $1.00 cwt for the period October 1, 2022 through December 31, 2022. The order followed an August 30, 2022, hearing on a petition to consider the “level and duration” as well as the “existence” of the OOP. The current OOP mandates a producer price premium over the federal order price through a calculation intended […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending Sept. 16, 2022
Pesticides/Herbicides: Federal Court Hears Proposals for Resolving Multidistrict Roundup Litigation 🌾
On September 1, 2022, representatives of Plaintiffs’ leadership group and Defendant Bayer (as successor in interest to Monsanto) filed a Joint Case Management Statement in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in the multi-district litigation (MDL) captioned In Re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, No. 16-md-2741, heard by Judge Vince Chhabria. The case consolidates the management of all federal products liability cases pending against Bayer alleging Roundup as the cause of the plaintiffs’ non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. According to the statement: (a) 3,266 pending cases in the […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending July 22, 2022
Antitrust: Federal Poultry Processing Wage Suppression Suit Alleging National Conspiracy Survives Motions to Dismiss 🌾
On July 19, 2022, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued an opinion on five motions to dismiss the third amended complaint in this 2019 putative class action case titled Judy Jein, et al. v. Perdue Farms, Inc., et al. No. 19-2521 (USDC MD), based upon Sherman Act antitrust violations on behalf of workers at various poultry processing plants. The class action alleges that the defendant manufacturers conspired to depress wages and share compensation data in order to do so. The twenty-six […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending June 3, 2022
Food Policy: USDA Announces “Framework to Transform Food Systems” 🌾
On June 1, 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced details of a set of actions collectively called a “Food Systems Transformation” framework, funded by American Rescue Plan Act and other pandemic relief legislation, to serve the purposes announced in Executive Order 14017 (America’s Supply Chains) and “to benefit consumers, producers and rural communities by providing more options, increasing access, and creating new, more, and better markets for small and mid-size producers.” The initial announcement outlined over $3 billion of investment in at least 16 USDA programs to […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending April 8, 2022
Agricultural Antitrust: Lawsuit Claims Dairy Farmers of America and Select Milk Conspired to Suppress Dairy Farmer Payments 🌾
On April 4, 2022, six New Mexico dairy cooperative members filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico against Dairy Farmers of America (DFA) and Select Milk Producers, Inc. (Select), alleging that the defendant dairy cooperatives conspired to depress members’ raw milk price in violation of the Sherman Act (15 U.S.C. § 1). Othart Dairy Farms, LLC v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., No. 2:22-cv-00251. The plaintiffs claim that DFA and Select—who the plaintiffs […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending August 14, 2020
On July 17, 2020, the Plaintiffs in the case Himsel v. Himsel (Ind. Ct. App. 18A-PL-00645) filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court (docket No. 20-72) challenging the constitutionality of Indiana’s Right to Farm Act. The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the Defendants, dismissing the Plaintiffs’ claim that the “noxious emissions” from a neighboring concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) constituted “nuisance, negligence, and trespass” (No. 32D04-1510-PL-000150). The Plaintiffs claim that the act violates the Takings Clause of […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – September 5, 2019
Antitrust: USDA Announces Investigation into Tyson Foods Following Plant Fire
On August 28, 2019, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Secretary Sonny Perdue announced an investigation into beef pricing margins following a recent fire at the Tyson Foods beef plant in Holcomb, Kansas. Tyson Foods stated in a press release that the company maintains several Kansas plants, which created a $2.4 billion impact on the state in 2018. The investigation will be conducted by the Packers and Stockyards Division (PSD) to determine whether standards for unfair practices were violated. PSD will look for “evidence of price manipulation, collusion, [and] restrictions of competition.” The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association […]
