Conservation Programs
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending August 20, 2021
Pesticides/Herbicides: EPA Invalidates all Chlorpyrifos Tolerance Levels, Prohibits Use on Food 🌾
On August 18, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule invalidating all “tolerances” for chlorpyrifos and stating the agency’s intent to cancel all registered food uses of the pesticide. The agency action responds to the April 29, 2021, order and June 21, 2021, mandate from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ordered EPA to either correct or revoke chlorpyrifos tolerances and food-use registrations. LULAC, et al v. Michael Regan, et al, No. 19-71979. EPA states that […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending July 16, 2021
WOTUS: Federal Court Grants EPA Request to Remand and Leaves Navigable Waters Protection Rule in Place 🌾
On July 15, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina issued an order granting the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) motion to remand without vacatur the Navigable Waters Protection Rule: Definition of “Waters of the United States” (85 FR 22250) (NWPR). South Carolina Coastal Conservation League v. Wheeler, No. 2:20-cv-01687. The court, which had previously stayed the case to allow for the administration change and EPA review of the rule, declined to explain its ruling in […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending May 28, 2021
Pesticides/Herbicides: Federal Court Rejects Bayer’s Proposed Partial Glyphosate Settlement, Bayer to Review Roundup Residential Use 🌾
On May 26, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an order denying approval of Bayer’s $2 billion proposed class settlement to resolve a portion of current and future claims in the multi-district class action litigation, In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, No. 3:16-md-02741. The proposed settlement covered claims from two groups of Roundup users: those who have already been diagnosed with Non-Hodgins lymphoma (NHL) but have not filed a claim and those who have not been diagnosed […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending May 14, 2021
Pesticides/Herbicides: Ninth Circuit Denies Bayer’s Appeal of Federal Jury’s Glyphosate Verdict 🌾
On May 14, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision denying all grounds for appeal by Bayer (successor to Monsanto’s Roundup product liabilities) from a March 2019 $25.3 million adverse jury verdict in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California finding that Plaintiff Edwin Hardeman’s exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing Roundup products caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Hardeman v. Monsanto, No. 19-16636, Ninth Circuit. While Bayer alleged multiple grounds for appeal, its primary legal arguments are that state products liability law […]
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 9, 2021
Antitrust: Court Approves $58 Settlement in Peanut Class Action Suit 🌾
On April 5, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia approved a $58 million settlement agreement between the plaintiff peanut farmer Settlement Class and defendant peanut shellers Birdsong Corporation and Olam Peanut Shelling Company, Inc. in a civil antitrust class action suit alleging that the defendant companies over- and under-reported peanut inventories to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to manipulate prices. In re Peanut Farmers Antitrust Litigation, No. 2:19-cv-00463. The approval follows the court’s March 2021 back-to-back orders, absent accompanying explanatory opinions, approving […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending March 19, 2021
Water Quality: Exelon’s Conowingo Dam Relicensed As Per Settlement with Maryland 🌾
On March 18, 2021, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a new 50-year license to Exelon Generation Company, LLC’s Conowingo Hydroelectric Project, the nearly century-old dam located on the Susquehanna River in Maryland approximately ten miles north of its entry to the Chesapeake Bay. Exelon Generation Company, LLC, Project Nos. 405-106 and 405-121, 174 FERC ¶ 61,217. In recent years it was discovered that previous modeling of phosphorous, nitrogen and sediment trapped behind the dam were flawed and pollutants previously assumed to be trapped behind the dam […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – week ending February 5, 2021
COVID-19/Ag Labor: Executive Order Directs OSHA to Issue Guidance and Consider Emergency Temporary Standards
On January 29, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced the issuance of new guidance titled “Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace,” consistent with January 21, 2021’s Executive Order 13999 directing DOL to, among many other things, issue revised COVID-19 workplace safety guidance within two weeks and consider the necessity of mandatory emergency temporary standards on COVID-19 and, if necessary, issue them by March 15, 2021. EO 13999 also […]
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 11, 2020
Dean Foods Bankruptcy: Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board Negotiates Nationwide Solution to Preference Payment Claims
On December 9, 2020, the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board (PMMB), partnering with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, announced that it had negotiated with the St. Paul, Minnesota, law firm representing the Chapter 11 bankruptcy estate of Dean Foods, ASK LLP. As a result, the PMMB prepared, and posted on the PMMB website, forms which can be downloaded, completed by producers and milk haulers in any state in the country, and mailed to ASK LLP as soon as possible as a response to the […]
