Agricultural Law in the Spotlight

On July 9, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order titled, “Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy” requiring multiple executive agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to assess industry practices, revise or promulgate regulations accordingly and develop and submit plans and analysis addressing topics of competition within their respective industries.   The order also creates a White House Competition Council, which includes the Secretary of Agriculture (Secretary), to address unfair “concentration, monopolization, and unfair competition” in the U.S. economy.  Specifically, according to the text of a White House Fact Sheet issued simultaneously, the […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

In a press release issued on December 9, 2020, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that it was taking action to challenge the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) measures recently released by the Canadian government on imported dairy products. U.S. Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer stated that these measures were unfair and harmful to American dairy farmers and were contrary to the terms of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which entered into force on July 1, 2020.

TRQs provide for a preferential rate of custom duty applied to a defined quantity of agricultural […]

Written by Brook Duer, Staff Attorney

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, 2019 and November 12, 2019).

The payments are alleged to be so-called “preference […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

In recent weeks, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down two separate decisions ruling on the pesticide registrations of Dicamba and Enlist Duo.  In a prior article, we discussed the reasoning and arguments handed down by the Court of Appeals in the dicamba case (National Family Farm Coalition, et al. v. U.S. EPA, et al., No. 19-70115).  In this article, we will provide an overview of the Court of Appeals decision dated July 22, 2020, upholding EPA’s registration approval of Enlist Duo – a pesticide developed by Dow Agrosciences, […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

In recent weeks, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down two separate decisions ruling on the pesticide registrations of dicamba and Enlist Duo.  In the first decision, issued on June 3, 2020, the court overruled a decision issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve registration of the herbicide dicamba (National Family Farm Coalition, et al. v. U.S. EPA, et al., No. 19-70115).  The same court, however, on July 22, 2020, upheld the EPA’s registration approval of Enlist Duo – a pesticide developed by Dow Agrosciences, LLC, comprising […]

Written by Brook Duer, Staff Attorney

On April 28, 2020, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13917, entitled “Delegating Authority Under the DPA with Respect to Food Supply Chain Resources During the National Emergency Caused by the Outbreak of COVID-19.”  It was published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2020, at 85 FR 26313.

• Media accounts in the days leading up to and since its issuance have characterized its contents in many inaccurate ways, even going so far as to say the President ordered meat packing plants to re-open if closed due to COVID-19 diagnoses in plant workers.  […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

A prior article provided an overview of developments regarding the safety of the use of glyphosate.  In this article, we will address selected ongoing cases challenging the safety of Roundup® products in the states of California and Missouri.

Major Legal developments in California

Three legal cases, all filed in California, have garnered much attention as they became the first cases against Monsanto to go to trial before a jury.  The ultimate verdicts in these cases have generated a lot of publicity in the media raising questions about the health effects of using Roundup® products, in which […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

On January 23, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finalized and released the final version of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, which modifies the prior definition of “Waters of the United States” contained in the Clean Water Rule promulgated during the Obama administration in June 2015.  The promulgation of this Final Rule is consistent with an Executive Order issued on February 28, 2017, by President Trump directing the EPA and the Corps to initiate steps towards reviewing and revising the 2015 Clean Water Rule. […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

Background

The AquAdvantage salmon is a genetically modified Atlantic salmon developed by AquaBounty Technology, a Massachusetts-based company. The technology behind the AquAdvantage® salmon originated from the discovery in 1989 of advanced molecular genetics that enabled the grow-out period of the fish to be reduced.  Specifically, the AquAdvantage® technology consists of integrating the Chinook salmon growth hormone gene into the genome of the Atlantic salmon; thus, enabling the Atlantic salmon to grow faster and end up more quickly on our plates.

Unlike Canada which approved commercial production of the genetically-modified fish in November 2013, the regulatory […]

Written by Chloe Marie – Research Specialist

Cell-cultured “meat” is currently not commercially produced or available in the United States; however, it likely is only a matter of time before this product will be available to consumers as many food technology companies have invested substantially into the making of cell-based food products as an alternative to meat derived from slaughtered animals.  As the technology for this product continues to develop, federal and state governments along with the agricultural industry have begun discussing and debating how to best regulate the production, processing, and marketing of cell-cultured food products.

For example, the National Conference […]