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—February 11, 2025
Webinar Next Week—Feb. 18, 2025, Quarterly Dairy Legal Webinar: HPAI in Dairy Cattle: Regulatory Measures Thus Far
Local Agricultural Policy: Pennsylvania Governor’s Proposed 2025–26 Budget Appropriates $255 Million for Agriculture 🌾
On February 4, 2025, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro presented his proposed 2025–26 state budget and enabling legislation, which includes $255 million for agriculture, down 2.3% from $261 million in 2024–25 (full PDF; budget in brief; line-item summary). However, the proposed budget appropriates $25 million for the Agriculture Innovation and Development Grant Program—which also includes “$2,000,000 for a county-based ‘digester’ pilot program”—a total increase […]
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 28, 2025
Agribusiness: Supreme Court Stays BOI Injunction But Reporting Requirements Still Paused 🌾
On January 23, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion staying the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas’s December 5, 2025 injunction in Texas Top Cop Shop v. Garland and again reinstating the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and the act’s Beneficial Ownership Information (BOI) reporting requirements. James R. McHenry, III, Acting Attorney General, v. Texas Top Cop Shop, No. 24A653. However, another nationwide injunction of the law, issued in a separate case on January 7, 2025, is still effective. Smith v. United […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—January 21, 2025
THIS WEEK: Webinar on Jan. 24, 2025, Understanding the Basics of Pennsylvania’s Carbon Sequestration Law
NEW: Farmland Energy Podcast, The Inflation Reduction Act and Agriculture (Jan. 14, 2025)
Dairy Policy: USDA Publishes Final Rule Amending Federal Milk Marketing Order Pricing Provisions 🌾
On January 17, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published in the Federal Register a final rule (90 FR 6600) amending the pricing provisions in the 11 Federal Milk Marketing Orders (FMMOs) after “separate producer referenda held in each of the 11 FMMOs obtained the necessary two-thirds vote in favor of adoption of […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—January 14, 2025
NEW:
- Duer, Brook, and Paul Goeringer. “2024 Brought Unprecedented Zoonotic Disease Control Challenge as Well as Far-Reaching Questions of Legal Authority.” Southern Ag Today. Jan. 10, 2025.
- Farmland Energy Legal Podcast: “An Introduction to Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land.” Jan. 7, 2025.
Avian Influenza: USDA Announces 28 States Enrolled in National Milk Testing Strategy, HHS Announces $306 Million for Avian Flu 🌾
On January 8, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that 15 additional states have enrolled in the National Milk Testing Strategy: Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Georgia, […]
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—December 20, 2024
Agribusiness: Federal Court Enjoins Corporate Transparency Act Ownership Reporting Requirement, January 1, 2025 Deadline Paused 🌾
On December 3, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued a memorandum opinion and order granting a preliminary injunction enjoining the federal government from enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) and its Beneficial Ownership Information reporting requirements. Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc. v. Garland, No. 4:24-cv-00478. The court followed the reasoning identified in the March 2024 opinion in National Small Business United v. Yellen and determined that “the CTA is not justified by the Commerce Clause, nor […]
Agricultural Law Weekly Review—December 10, 2024
This Week:
- Understanding the Basics of Children, Minors & Farm Work, Fri. Dec. 13, 2024 @ noon ET
NEW:
- Farmland Energy Podcast: Dust Pollution in Rural Pennsylvania (Dec. 7, 2024)
Agricultural Labor: Two Federal Courts Block ‘Temporary Ag Workers’ Rule, Nationwide Stay Issued 🌾
On November 25, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi issued an order temporarily staying nationwide the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) recent H-2A final rule, “Improving Protections for Workers in Temporary Agricultural Employment in the United States” (89 FR 33898). Int’l Fresh Produce Assoc. v. U.S. […]
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 […]
