National Agricultural Policy
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—June 10, 2025
Next Week: An Overview of State Grain Dealer Statutes in the United States, Wed. June 18 at noon. Center Director Ross Pifer presents with the National Agricultural Law Center.
Dairy Policy: Pennsylvania Milk Board Publishes Order Continuing $1 Over-Order Premium 🌾
On June 4, 2025, the Pennsylvania Milk Board (PMB) published Official General Order No. A-1021 on its Official General Orders webpage. The order, effective July 1–December 31, 2025, will replace Official General Order No. A-1020, issued in December 2024, and will continue the $1.00 per hundredweight over-order premium on all Class I milk produced, processed, and sold […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—June 3, 2025
National Agricultural Policy: House Ag Committee Publishes Draft Budget Resolution Plan 🌾
On May 12, 2025, the House Committee on Agriculture announced the publication of its draft text to accommodate the federal budget resolution’s reconciliation directives (H. Con. Res. 14). Additionally, the committee published a section-by-section overview of the draft. For more detail on the bill’s provisions, see Peggy Kirk Hall, House Farm Bill Reconciliation Summary Overview, Ohio St. Univ. Ext. Farm Off. Blog (May 27, 2025) and Kristine A. Tidgren, What Tax Provisions are in the House’s Big Beautiful Bill?, Iowa St. Univ. Ctr. […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—May 27, 2025
Registration Open! 2025 Pennsylvania Agricultural Law Symposium: Sept. 18, 2025
This Friday! May 30: Understanding the Basics of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act
Avian Influenza: Brazil Confirms HPAI in Commercial Flock, APHIS Issues Import Restrictions 🌾
On May 16, 2025, the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock announced (PDF) that the ministry had confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in a commercial poultry breeding facility located in the country’s southernmost state bordering Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul. On the same day, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—April 22, 2025
This week—Fri. Apr. 25: Understanding the Basics of PA Ag Exemptions for Inheritance Tax and Other Real Estate Transfers
National Agricultural Policy: USDA Cancels ‘Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities,’ Announces ‘Advancing Markets for Producers’ 🌾
On April 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the agency is cancelling its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) program, initiated in 2022 under the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act. USDA states that “the majority of” PCSC “projects had . . . high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers” and that the […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—April 15, 2025
Today! Apr. 15 at Noon: Quarterly Dairy Legal Webinar—Bovine Disease Controls
Pesticides/Herbicides: Monsanto Files Petition for Certiorari Seeking FIFRA Preemption in Glyphosate Cases 🌾
On April 4, 2025, Monsanto filed a petition for writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States, asking the court to decide whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts a state-law failure-to-warn claim. Monsanto Company v. John L. Durnell, No. 24-1068. The petition appeals a decision from the Missouri Court of Appeals upholding a $1.25 million jury verdict awarded to a plaintiff claiming that Monsanto’s glyphosate-based […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—March 26, 2025
This Week: Fri. Mar. 28, 2025, Understanding the Basics of the Clean Water Act & Ag: Impaired Waters & TMDL Process
National Agricultural Policy: USDA Announces $10 Billion for Direct ECAP Payments 🌾
On March 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced (PDF) that the agency “is issuing up to $10 billion directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) for the 2024 crop year” to “help agricultural producers mitigate the impacts of increased input costs . . . falling commodity prices . . . and ‘market uncertainty.’” According to the announcement, the […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—February 4, 2025
National Agricultural Policy: Temporary Restraining Order Issued Against Federal Funding Pause After Memo Rescission 🌾
On January 27, 2025, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued memorandum M-25-13 directing “Federal agencies [to] . . . temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance . . . including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.” The next day, on January 28, two separate complaints were filed seeking an injunction against the memorandum: one filed by several interest groups in the […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—January 7, 2025
Agribusiness: Fifth Circuit Reinstates Corporate Transparency Act Injunction After Brief Reversal, Government Files Petition for Certiorari 🌾
On December 26, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued an order vacating its December 23 stay of the district court’s preliminary injunction of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements, reinstating the pause on the January 1, 2025 compliance deadline for entity owners to file with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). See Agricultural Law in the Spotlight article: Fifth Circuit Reinstates Corporate Transparency Act Injunction After Brief Reversal, Government […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—November 26, 2024
Avian Influenza: Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Publishes Order Requiring Bulk Milk Testing 🌾
On November 20, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) Secretary Russell Redding issued a general quarantine order—effective immediately and published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin on November 23, 2024 (54 Pa.B. 7570)—requiring bulk testing of milk from Pennsylvania farms for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Also announced by PDA, the order requires all in-state milk processors “receiving bulk raw milk directly from a Pennsylvania dairy farm or milk cooperative” to “begin collecting and submitting samples of raw milk taken from each compartment of each […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—November 21, 2024
Avian Influenza: USDA Confirms first HPAI in Swine 🌾
On October 30, 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that the agency had confirmed the first detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI/H5NI) in swine in the United States, located in an Oregon non-commercial backyard farming operation. According to the announcement, the premises included “a mix of poultry and livestock, including swine” that “shared water sources, housing, and equipment,” which the department states “has enabled transmission between species [in other states].” APHIS states that “the animals were not intended for the commercial […]
