Agricultural Labor
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending May 7, 2021
Chesapeake Bay: EPA Releases Evaluation of Draft Conowingo Watershed Implementation Plan 🌾
On May 6, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the agency had completed its evaluation of the draft Conowingo Watershed Implementation Plan (CWIP), which outlines a proposed plan to reduce 6 million pounds of nitrogen and 260,000 pounds of phosphorus added to the Conowingo Dam infill to compensate for the previously miscalculated capacity of the Conowingo Dam and reservoir to trap those nutrients accumulating behind the dam. According to EPA’s evaluation, the draft CWIP targets best management restoration practices “in the most effective […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending April 23, 2021
WOTUS: EPA Administrator Testifies on WOTUS 🌾
On April 21, 2021, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan testified about EPA’s approach to the presently applicable Navigable Waters Protection Rule before the House Committee On Appropriations, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies. He stated, “What I’m pledging to do is begin a stakeholder-engagement process involving our ag community — farm bureau, ag CEOs, our environmental community — to look at the lessons learned and how we can move forward . . . that we can provide some certainty to the ag industry where we don’t overburden the small farmer […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending April 2, 2021
Agricultural Labor: Federal Court Vacates Swine Slaughter Rule Line Speed Elimination 🌾
On March 31, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued an order vacating the elimination of pork slaughter plant line speed controls which was included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) October 2019 Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection rule (84 FR 52300). United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local No. 663 v. United States Department of Agriculture, No. 0:19-cv-02660. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) challenged the rule on behalf of pork processing plant workers as an Administrative Procedure […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending February 26, 2021
Antitrust: Court Grants Preliminary Approval of Civil Antitrust Settlement; Tyson and Pilgrim’s to Pay $155 Million 🌾
On February 25, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order granting preliminary approval of the settlements between Defendants Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. and Tyson Foods and the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs (DPPs) in the consolidated antitrust class action suit In re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation (No. 1:16-cv-08637). According to the agreement, subject to a June 29, 2021 Fairness Hearing, Pilgrim’s will pay up to $75 million to the DPP Class, which it previously announced. See ALWR—week ending January 15, […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending February 19, 2021
Agricultural Labor: NASS Publishes 2020 Farm Labor Report; 2021 H-2A Minimum Wage to be Published 🌾
On February 11, 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the 2020 Farm Labor Report, originally scheduled for release November 25, 2020. The delay was caused by USDA suspending the October 2020 Agricultural Labor Survey, which provides the July – October 2020 data for this annual report, as part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) implementation of a new final rule issued November 5, 2020, dispensing with the survey to calculate the annual H-2A Adverse Effect Wage […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending January 15, 2021
Agricultural Labor: Maryland Court of Appeals Finds Tyson Farms Not Co-Employer of Poultry Farm Employee
On November 20, 2020, the Court of Appeals of Maryland issued an opinion reversing the decision of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and finding that Tyson Farms was not a co-employer of a Maryland poultry farm worker who sustained an occupational lung disease during his employment and residence on a Worcester County chicken farm. In overturning a jury verdict from the Circuit Court for Worcester County, which found Tyson not to be a joint employer, the majority of a Maryland Court of Special Appeals panel reversed the trial court and determined that Tyson was a co-employer with the farm owner—who had failed to carry worker’s compensation insurance—and […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending December 25, 2020
Pesticides/Herbicides: 5-Year Dicamba Registration Approval Challenged in Parallel Litigation
On December 21, 2020, the identical five entities (referred to collectively herein as the “Center for Food Safety”) who were successful in June 2020 in having the EPA registrations of three dicamba-containing herbicides vacated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (9th Circuit), filed a Petition for Review with the 9th Circuit seeking to have the EPA’s October 27, 2020, 5-year registration approvals of three dicamba-containing herbicides again invalidated. The petition alleges that the new registrations have been issued in violation of the Federal Insecticide, […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending December 18, 2020
Pesticides/Herbicides: Punitive Damages Reduced to $60 Million in Bader Farms Dicamba Case
On November 25, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri issued an opinion and order on post-trial motions reducing to $60 million the February 2020 jury award of $250 million in punitive damages against Monsanto/Bayer and BASF as a result of dicamba-caused property damage to a Missouri peach producer’s orchards in Bader Farms, Inc. v. Monsanto Company, No. 1:16-cv-00299. For more background, see ALWR—February 20, 2020, “Missouri Federal Jury Returns $265 Million Verdict in Dicamba […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending December 4, 2020
Dean Foods Bankruptcy: Dean Foods Bankruptcy Estate Threatens Dairy Producers with Lawsuits to Recoup Alleged “Preference” Payments
On November 24, 2020, a commercial collections law firm named ASK LLP, headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota and hired to represent the Southern Foods Group, LLC formerly d/b/a Dean Foods (“Dean”) Chapter 11 bankruptcy estate, mailed demand letters asserting legal claims for the repayment of milk check proceeds against thousands of dairy producers (including cooperatives) throughout the United States. The claims seek the recovery of milk checks received from Dean within ninety days preceding Dean’s filing of bankruptcy (i.e. between August 14, […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—week ending November 6, 2020
Agricultural Labor: Department of Labor Modifies H2A Minimum Wage Calculation
On November 5, 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration published in the Federal Register a final rule titled “Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the United States” (85 FR 70445), which changes the calculation method of the Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), or the minimum wage for agricultural guest workers. Under the final rule, DOL will base the AEWR for field and livestock workers on the 2019 Farm Labor Survey (FLS) “average annual gross […]
