National Agricultural Policy
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending August 19, 2022
National Agriculture Policy: Inflation Reduction Act Signed Into Law
On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law H.R.5376, known as the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” which appropriates $750 billion through 2031 for numerous federal programs, prioritizing renewable energy, climate, and healthcare initiatives. The Act allocates approximately $38 billion for agriculture and rural development, down from the previous November 2021 version of the bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, which would have provided $80 billion for agricultural programs. The 2022 Act includes
- $19.5 billion for conservation programs—$8.45 billion of which prioritizes diet […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending July 15, 2022
Enacted Pennsylvania 2022-23 Budget Includes $25 Million in HPAI Poultry Grower Assistance Grants and $220 Million in New Clean Streams Fund; Last HPAI Quarantine Control Zone Released 🌾
On July 8, 2022, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Act No. 1A of 2022, formerly known as Senate Bill 1100, titled the “General Appropriation Act of 2002” and Act No. 54 of 2022, formerly known as House Bill 1421, commonly referred to as the “2022-2023 Fiscal Code Bill,” both of which together provide the primary state fiscal year 2022-23 budget for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania government. The most succinct summary of […]
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 January 21, 2022
Pesticides/Herbicides: ‘Pure’ Honey Label May Be Deceptive Due to Pesticide Residue
On January 13, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an order denying in part honey maker Sioux Honey Association Cooperative’s motion to dismiss a claim against it alleging deceptive business practices, false advertising, and unjust enrichment because the company’s SueBee brand honey was labeled with the words “Pure” or “100% Pure” when the honey contained trace amounts of glyphosate. Scholder v. Sioux Honey Association, No. 2:16-cv-05369. Sioux Honey argued that its “Pure” labeling was not misleading because any glyphosate present in […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Weeks Ending December 24 & 31, 2021
Pesticides/Herbicides: EPA Publishes 2021 Dicamba Report and Addresses 2020 Growing Season 🌾
On December 21, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a report titled “Status of Over-the-Top Dicamba: Summary of 2021 Usage, Incidents and Consequences of Off-Target Movement, and Impacts of Stakeholder-Suggested Mitigations.” The report is published to a “nonrulemaking docket” at Regulations.gov titled “Dicamba for Use on Dicamba-Tolerant Cotton and Soybeans”—an official repository for documents not part of a formal EPA rulemaking process but which impact EPA’s October 2020 five-year product registrations for dicamba-containing products. EPA announced that “[d]espite the control measures implemented in EPA’s […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending December 3, 2021
Pesticides/Herbicides: EPA Publishes Pesticide Registration Review Schedule Through 2025 🌾
On December 2, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the agency’s pesticide registration review schedule through fiscal year 2025, which the agency states it will now update quarterly rather than annually, the agency’s historical precedent. Although the 2007 amendments to the Federal Insecticide Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) require EPA to review all registered pesticides every fifteen years, EPA anticipates that it will extend its review beyond October 1, 2022 for some pesticides registered before October 1, 2007 due to pandemic challenges. According to the announcement, of […]
Rapid Review: Window Closing on Legal Challenges to California’s Proposition 12
On July 28, 2021, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a decision in Nat’l Pork Producers Council, et al v. Karen Ross, et al, No. 20-55631, holding that California’s 2018 Proposition 12 swine confinement requirements for in-state production, and in-state sales restriction for pork products not produced in accordance with them, do not violate the United States Constitution’s Commerce Clause. Proposition 12 prohibits the sale of pork in California from hogs: (a) born of a sow that cannot lie down, stand up, fully extend its limbs, or turn around without touching the […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending July 23, 2021
WOTUS: County of Maui Filing Requests Court to Follow EPA Guidance, No Need for NPDES Permit 🌾
On July 21, 2021, in response to the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii’s July 15, 2021 ruling that the County of Maui (County) must obtain a Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for its wastewater injection well disposal, Defendant County of Maui filed an analysis of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) January 2021 guidance memorandum, “Applying the Supreme Court’s County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund Decision in the Clean Water Act Section 402 […]
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 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 […]
