Biotechnology
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending December 16, 2022
Agricultural Labor: Fifth Circuit Finds No Federal Jurisdiction In Worker Suit Against Swift Beef For Inadequate COVID Protections 🌾
On December 7, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion vacating and remanding the federal district court’s orders in an action filed by Swift Beef Company employees alleging that they contracted COVID-19 due to the company’s “fail[ure] to provide a safe work environment.” Garcia v. Swift Beef, No. 22-10050; Garcia v. Swift Beef Company, No. 2:20-cv-00263 (N.D. Tex). The case was originally filed in Texas state court but Swift Beef removed it claiming […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending November 25, 2022
Biotechnology: USDA Secretary Releases Statement on U.S.-Mexico Corn Trade After Meeting with Mexican President 🌾
On November 28, 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) published a statement from Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding a meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador addressing his December 2020 decree, which called for the phased-out Mexican use of both glyphosate and genetically modified (GE) corn for human consumption by January 31, 2024. Mexican corn production is approximately 60% of its domestic consumption; corn is Mexico’s top imported U.S. agricultural commodity, and Mexico is the second […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending November 18, 2022
Ag Labor: Federal Court Issues Temporary Restraining Order Against Packers Sanitation
On November 10, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) directing Packers Sanitation Services, Inc. to stop using “oppressive child labor” in its operations. Walsh v. Packers Sanitation Services, Inc., No. 4:22-cv-03246. The TRO was issued in response to a complaint filed by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that cited multiple violations of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) child labor laws in JBS meat packing facilities in Grand Island, Nebraska; Worthington, Minnesota; and in Turkey Valley […]
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 March 18, 2022
Food Labeling: Tenth Circuit Affirms Dismissal of ‘Product of USA’ Meat Labeling Lawsuit 🌾
On March 11, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued an opinion and order affirming the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico’s dismissal of a suit alleging that the “Product of the U.S.A” labels used by the defendant meat packers—Tyson Foods, Inc., Cargill Meat Solutions, Corp., JBS USA Food Company, and National Beef Packing Company, LLC—are deceptive and misleading because the labeled beef products are not derived from cattle born and raised in the United States but instead […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending March 11, 2022
Avian Influenza: Detections Now in Sixteen States 🌾
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) detected in domestic poultry in the following states: Indiana—Feb. 8, 16, 23 (two separate premises) and 24 and Mar. 2 in commercial turkeys; Kentucky—Feb. 12 in commercial broiler chickens (broilers) and Feb. 15 in commercial turkeys; Virginia—Feb. 12 in mixed backyard poultry; New York—Feb. 19 and 24 (two separate premises) in various non-commercial poultry; Maine—Feb. 19 and 23 in backyard poultry; Delaware—Feb. 22 in broilers and laying hens (layers) and Mar. […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending September 24, 2021
WOTUS: Supreme Court Petition Seeks Review of Rapanos Case Analysis 🌾
On September 24, 2021, Priest Lake, Idaho landowners Michael and Chantell Sackett filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to revisit the court’s 2006 Rapanos decision attempting to define jurisdictional “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Michael Sackett, et ux. v. EPA, No. 21-454. In Rapanos v. United States, the plurality opinion, in which four justices joined, determined that the CWA regulates surface waters only when they have a “continuous surface water connection” to […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending September 3, 2021
WOTUS: Arizona Federal Court Vacates 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule
On August 30, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona issued an order vacating and remanding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) (85 FR 22250) which defined “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) for the purposes of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Pasqua Yaqui Tribe v. EPA, No. 4:20-cv-00266. However, pursuant to the court’s order, the so-called 2019 “Repeal Rule,” which repealed the 2015 “Clean Water Rule” (80 FR 37053) and re-instated the pre-2015 regulations (84 FR […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending August 27, 2021
Ag-Gag Statutes: Tenth Circuit Affirms Unconstitutionality of Kansas’s Ag-Gag Law 🌾
On August 19, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit issued an opinion affirming the district court’s injunction barring enforcement of key provisions of the Kansas Farm Animal and Field Crop and Research Facilities Protection Act (Act). Animal Legal Defense Fund, et al v. Kelly, et al, No. 20-3082; Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Kelly, No. 2:18-cv-02657 (D. Kan.). Sections (b), (c), and (d) of the Act criminalize “exercising control over,” recording on, and trespassing onto an animal facility “without effective consent of the […]
