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 May 21, 2021
Organic Agriculture: USDA AMS Reopens Comment Period on Origin of Livestock Rule Under National Organic Program 🌾
On May 12, 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) posted in the Federal Register a proposed rule titled, “National Organic Program; Origin of Livestock; Reopening of Comment Period” (86 FR 25961). The posting re-opens the comment period for the April 2015 proposed rule requiring that organic milk products be derived from animals under “continuous organic management from the last third of gestation onward.” However, newly certified organic dairy producers may transition livestock into […]
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 May 7, 2021
Chesapeake Bay: EPA Releases Evaluation of Draft Conowingo Watershed Implementation Plan 🌾
On May 6, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the agency had completed its evaluation of the draft Conowingo Watershed Implementation Plan (CWIP), which outlines a proposed plan to reduce 6 million pounds of nitrogen and 260,000 pounds of phosphorus added to the Conowingo Dam infill to compensate for the previously miscalculated capacity of the Conowingo Dam and reservoir to trap those nutrients accumulating behind the dam. According to EPA’s evaluation, the draft CWIP targets best management restoration practices “in the most effective […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review – Week Ending April 30, 2021
COVID-19: White House Reviewing OSHA’s Long-Delayed Emergency Temporary Standard
On April 26, 2021, according to a U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) spokesperson, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) submitted to the White House an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) for the prevention of workplace COVID-19 transmission. President Biden’s January 21, 2021 Executive Order on Protecting Worker Health and Safety directed OSHA to decide upon the necessity of an ETS and submit it to the White House by March 15, 2021, however that action was long-delayed without official explanation. An ETS on this topic would represent the first mandatory federal government […]
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 16, 2021
COVID-19: Farmer to Families Food Box Program Ends; Fresh Produce Box Purchases and Dairy Donation Program Planned 🌾
According to statements made by Secretary Vilsack posted to USDA’s website on April 14, 2021, the Farmer to Families Food Box Program will be terminated at the close of April 2021 when the current funded vendor contracts end. On April 14. 2021, Reuters reported that USDA Communications Director Matt Herrick stated USDA is focused on different hunger initiatives, including expanding food stamp benefits and increasing food purchases through existing government food distribution programs. On April 9, 2021, USDA released a
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 April 2, 2021
Agricultural Labor: Federal Court Vacates Swine Slaughter Rule Line Speed Elimination 🌾
On March 31, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota issued an order vacating the elimination of pork slaughter plant line speed controls which was included in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) October 2019 Modernization of Swine Slaughter Inspection rule (84 FR 52300). United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local No. 663 v. United States Department of Agriculture, No. 0:19-cv-02660. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) challenged the rule on behalf of pork processing plant workers as an Administrative Procedure […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—Week Ending March 26, 2021
COVID-19: USDA Announces New ‘Pandemic Assistance for Producers’ Initiative 🌾
On March 24, 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its new $6 billion financial assistance initiative, USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers. Combining existing programs with new spending, the initiative aims to resolve disparities in previous assistance distribution through a four-part agenda: 1) $6 billion in Consolidated Appropriations Act and unspent coronavirus funds for new program spending, including assistance for the Dairy Donation Program, biofuels, specialty crops, and farmworker personal protective equipment; 2) $500 million in additional existing program spending, including the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and […]
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 […]
