Agricultural Law Weekly Review
The Agricultural Law Weekly Review provides an update of recent agricultural law developments from local, state, national, and international levels. Subscribe for updates.
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 17, 2021
Pennsylvania Senate Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Hearing: Utility Scale Solar Development and Agricultural Land in Pennsylvania, September 21, 2021, at 9:00 am. Agenda, witness list and live streaming are available here.
Antitrust: Minnesota Federal Court Denies All Motions to Dismiss Filed by Beef Packers in Consolidated Civil Antitrust Class Action Litigation 🌾
On September 14, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued a memorandum opinion and order denying approximately twenty motions to dismiss in a large consolidated civil class action antitrust case wherein multiple plaintiffs allege multiple beef industry participants, acting individually and in […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending September 10, 2021
Antitrust: White House Announces Intent to Address Effects on Consumers, Farmers and Ranchers of Meat Processing Industry Consolidation 🌾
On September 8, 2021, The White House published a policy outline on its official website titled “Addressing Concentration in the Meat-Processing Industry to Lower Food Prices for American Families” and conducted a Press Briefing with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese in support. According to the document and Press Secretary Jen Psaki, the administration will address the following: (a) a “corporate consolidation problem with meat-processing giants;” (b) measures to reduce consumer prices and increase farmer and rancher […]
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 […]
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 August 13, 2021
Pesticides/Herbicides: California State Appellate Court Affirms Verdict in Pilliod v. Monsanto 🌾
On August 9, 2021, the Court of Appeal for the State of California issued an opinion affirming the jury verdict in a glyphosate products liability claim against Monsanto/Bayer. Pilliod et al. v. Monsanto Company, No. A158228. In 2019, a jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, Alva and Alberta Pilliod, who alleged that their thirty-year use of Monsanto/Bayer’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused them both to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, in the amount of $2 billion but the trial court reduced it to $87 million on […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending August 6, 2021
Animal Welfare: Five U.S. Senators Introduce Federal Legislation to Stop Proposition 12
On August 5, 2021, a group of five U.S. Senators introduced S.2619, titled “Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression” or “EATS Act,’’ seeking to erase the effect of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ July 28, 2021, ruling upholding California’s Proposition 12 and leaving in place its January 1, 2022 effective date. The bill proposes to prohibit states from imposing requirements on the “production of agricultural products sold or offered for sale in interstate commerce if the production . . . occurs in another state.” The bill was referred […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending July 30, 2021
Animal Welfare: Federal Appeals Court Upholds California’s Proposition 12 With Five Months Until Its Effective Date 🌾
On July 28, 2021, the U.S. 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 Proposition 12 in-state production animal confinement standards and in-state sales restriction for products not produced in accordance with them, do not violate the United States Constitution’s Commerce Clause. In upholding Proposition 12’s constitutionality, the Court affirmed the earlier decision upholding Proposition 12 issued by the U. S. District Court for […]
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 […]
