Agriculture News
Secretary Perdue to announce new mentorship initiative in Iowa August 5, Register Now!
Farm Services Agency | Posted on July 28, 2017On August 5, 2017, Secretary Perdue plans to announce an initiative that will increase access to business mentorships by farmers, ranchers and small business entrepreneurs. Please join us for this announcement and a panel discussion on supporting the next generation of farmers and ranchers! New farmers need people in their corner who can help them navigate the challenges of starting and growing a business. Advisors from a wide range of backgrounds can support new farmers through agricultural mentorship. While a generation of farmers prepares to transition off the land, the next generation is exploring ways to get started and grow their operations. USDA is working with partners like you to ensure that farmers and ranchers have access to the support and tools they need to succeed, and this new mentorship initiative that Secretary Perdue will announce on August 5 is an important tool in the toolbox. I hope that you can join us for this event in person or on USDA’s Facebook page, where we will be broadcasting live! Please also share this announcement with your membership and producers in Iowa. Logistics:Where: Iowa Ag Summit held at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. When: Saturday, August 5, 2017. Events: 11:00am Secretary Perdue’s keynote address and announcement. 3:00pm Panel discussion “Supporting the Next Generation of Farmers and Ranchers” Attendance at the Iowa Ag Summit is free but registration is required at https://iowaagsummit.com/, and late registrations will be accepted.
American Farmland Trust releases new guide on Growing Local
American Farmland Trust | Posted on July 28, 2017Today American Farmland Trust and Growing Food Connections announced the publication of GROWING LOCAL: A Community Guide to Planning for Agriculture and Food Systems. The national guide showcases ways communities can strengthen their food systems through planning, policy and public investment. It includes the most comprehensive collection of local policies ever assembled to support local farms and ranches, improve access to healthy food, and develop needed distribution and infrastructure. Written for farmers, community residents and food policy councils, as well as planners and local government officials, this practical guide highlights real life examples of ways communities are growing food connections from field to fork. “GROWING LOCAL is an excellent resource, sharing successful policies and approaches to food systems development from across the country,” said David Rouse, managing director of research and advisory services for the American Planning Association. “It identifies key places in the planning process where a community can address the viability of local farms and improve healthy food access—from civic engagement, to visioning and goal setting, to developing solutions to grow its economy and the well-being of its residents.”
New York meat plant to close despite grant money
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on July 27, 2017Value-added and portion-controlled pork and veal products maker Delft Blue will close its pork processing plant in New York Mills, N.Y., just months after announcing it would expand its operation and add 22 jobs in exchange for a $330,000 government grant, according to local media reports. According to NewYorkUpstate.com, the expansion never happened, and now Delft Blue plans to close the plant and lay off its 83 employees, filing a notice under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act saying it will shut its plant in October.
Why the new organic egg welfare rule won’t raise prices
Watt Ag Net | Posted on July 27, 2017A new final rule establishing stricter animal welfare standards for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program are being delayed until at least November 2017, but Mid-States Specialty Eggs and Eggs “R” Us Inc. argue the final rule – originally published in January 2017 – won’t hamper the organic egg business or send prices skyrocketing as some are predicting. When in effect, the new rules will require all organic-certified animals to be given enough space to lay down, turn around, stand up, fully stretch their limbs without touching other animals or the side of the enclosure, and otherwise express natural behaviors. The regulation will establish new rules for housing, transportation and slaughter of organic poultry, too. Most importantly for egg producers, outside access will be mandatory. Verandas or porches attached to layer houses will no longer be classified as outdoor spaces. Marion Hostetler, an owner of Mid-States and a member of the Organic Egg Farmers of America, said his company is exceeding this new standard and it’s doing it at a cost where it can sell at a price that beats other major producers. Mid-States and Eggs "R" Us were profiled in the July 2017 issue of Egg Industry. He estimated the size of the organic layer flock is about 15 million to 17 million birds. If 7 million of those birds were taken out of organic production due to the rule, as he said the rule could potentially do, then there could certainly be a market disruption. But in the long term, the market will even out. Even if prices spike, he said, it’s not likely organic eggs will enter the $8 per dozen territory. As of May 2017, Mid-States’ organic eggs sell for $3.99 a dozen
NJ Telemedicine Law Delayed By Concerns About Veterinarian Use
mHealth Intelligence | Posted on July 27, 2017New Jersey’s new telemedicine regulations are being held up as state officials try to determine whether they pertain to veterinarians. Gov. Chris Christie met this week with healthcare and veterinary officials to discuss the ramifications of S.291, which awaits his signature after unanimous passage last month by state legislators.The bill would, among other things, enable healthcare providers to use telehealth to establish a doctor-patient relationship, ensure the same standards of care as an in-person visit, and ensure coverage and payment parity for private payers, state Medicaid and some other health plans.While those guidelines are important for healthcare providers, they pose problems for veterinarians. And the issue could crop up in other states where telemedicine legislation doesn’t clearly define a difference between those practicing healthcare on humans and those treating animals."They never thought of veterinarians when they wrote this bill," Rick Alampi, executive director of the New Jersey Veterinary Medical Association, told the Veterinary Information Network . “The bill, which authorizes ‘the provision of health care services through telemedicine and telehealth’ governs such services provided by veterinarians, as ‘[h]ealth care providers,’ fails to acknowledge or provide for issues specific to veterinary medicine,” Nancy Halpern, an attorney with Fox Rothschild, LLP, recently wrote in JD Supra. “For example, several provisions require the ‘patient’s request’ before providing health care services through telemedicine. Clearly animal patients cannot request treatment or provide consent. The bill fails to distinguish a ‘patient’ from a ‘client’ or ‘animal owner’ or to permit such services at the request of a client/owner for the patient which is the fundamental way in which services are provided in a veterinary practice.”
California milk quota proposal nears finish line
Capital Press | Posted on July 27, 2017California dairy farmers are eager to abandon the state’s milk marketing order and join the federal marketing order system, hoping to increase the price they receive for their milk. They have, however, been adamant that loss of the state’s quota program would be a deal breaker.That program pays quota certificate holders $1.70 per hundredweight above the state blend price for the amount of milk covered by their certificate. Those certificates are together worth $1.2 billion, and are an asset that can be transferred or sold.USDA would allow the quota program to continue in the proposed federal order as a stand-alone program run by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. And a producer review board established by CDFA has been at work figuring out how the program would operate.The main issue was what milk would be assessed and how the assessment would be collected. Under the state order nearly all milk is pooled and CDFA deducts $12 million to $13 million a month from the pool to fund the quota program. Under a federal order, however, only Class I fluid milk is require to be pooled, and milk for other uses can move in and out of the pool.
Ag-gag laws – which side has the better claim?
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on July 27, 2017The State of Utah passed an Act in 2012 making it a misdemeanor to record an agricultural operation without permission. Simple enough, but a couple of animal rights groups objected and filed a suit to have the law overturned. Utah based its defense of the law on four points identified in the judge’s ruling, “[I]n its briefing, the State confined the court’s analysis to four discrete government interests it contends support the Act, arguing: (1) The Act protects animals from diseases brought into the facility by workers; (2) It protects animals from injury resulting from unqualified or inattentive workers; (3) It protects workers from exposure to zoonotic diseases; and (4) It protects workers from injury resulting from unqualified or inattentive workers.” These were the four parts of my expert report for the Office of the Utah Attorney General.The judge seemed to agree that the content of my report didn’t target any particular group of people or any particular intentions. But, the judge expressed his skepticism of the government of Utah when he wrote, “[I]t is not clear that these were the actual reasons motivating the Act.” And, “What the Act appears perfectly tailored toward is preventing undercover investigators from exposing abuses at agricultural facilities.” The motivation for the Act seems to have been more important to the judge than its merit. He ruled the Act is unconstitutional, favoring speech rights over property rights. Despite the judge’s ruling, this case could take a nasty turn for animal rights groups. The State of Utah has a habit of appealing a ruling by a single judge that overturns a law passed by the democratically elected legislature and signed by the governor. The next judges could be inclined to give greater weight to the advantages of the law. The animal rights groups might find themselves facing a bear when they expected another raccoon.
DuPont Gets Boost From Farmers With Dow Merger Set to Close
Bloomberg | Posted on July 27, 2017DuPont Co. got a boost from U.S. farmers as it closes in on the historic $75 billion merger with Dow Chemical Co. next month. Seed sales climbed in the second quarter as DuPont introduced new varieties of soybeans in North America, while pesticide revenue jumped on demand for new fungicides and insecticides, the company said in a statement. DuPont is benefiting as North American farmers sow a record soybean crop after enduring years of low corn prices. U.S. growers are on course to increase soybean acreage 7 percent this year, according to the Department of Agriculture. Seed gains drove an 11 percent increase in farm-related earnings, accounting for more than half of total profit at DuPont.
Ag Law Update - 2nd Quarter
National Ag Law Center | Posted on July 26, 2017In the second quarter of 2017, there were a number of significant legal developments in the agricultural sector. Many of these issues will continue to play out over the next year and will impact agriculture throughout the country. Notably, there were important developments involving the WOTUS Rule, dicamba registration, and checkoff programs. In this light, the Agricultural and Food Law Consortium has compiled this review of some of these developments, with links for additional resources. Led by the National Agricultural Law Center (NALC), the Consortium is a four-university partnership designed to enhance and expand the development and delivery of authoritative, timely, and objective agricultural and food law research and information. A printable pdf version of this document is available here. The subjects Animal Welfare / Biosecurity, Aquaculture, Checkoff Programs, Energy, Environmental, Food & Drug Administration, Crop Insurance, International Trade, Invasive Species, Pesticides, and Water Law
Overview of Texas Amendments to Use of Unmanned Aircraft Statute
Texas Agriculture Law Blog | Posted on July 26, 2017The 85th Legislative Session brought an amendment to the law related to use of unmanned aircraft in Texas. Importantly for agriculture, the amendment adds confined animal feeding operations (“CAFOs”) to the list of “critical infrastructure” facilities to which additional flight limitations apply for many drone operators. The amendment will go into effect on September 1, 2017. This post will review, in detail, the current Use of Unmanned Aircraft statute and discuss the most recent amendment. For those of you not concerned with the specific details, the “Take Away Points” sections at the end of the post will summarize the key points of the post and save you some time. As of September 1, 2017, House Bill 1643 will make three key changes to the Use of Unmanned Aircraft statute.First, there will be modifications to the “critical infrastructure” definition.Of interest for agriculture, the definition will now include “a concentrated animal feeding operation.” This is defined as “a concentrated, confined livestock or poultry facility that is operated for meat, milk, or egg production or for growing, stabling, or housing livestock or poultry in pens or houses, in which livestock or poultry are fed at the place of confinement and crop or forage growth or feed is not produced in the confinement area.”Another addition that could be important for rural landowners with oil or gas production on their property is that the definition will include an oil or gas drilling site, a group of tanks used to store crude oil, an oil, gas or chemical production facility, an oil or gas wellhead, or any oil or gas facility with an active flare so long as enclosed by a fence or other physical barrier obviously designed to exclude intruders.Additionally, “any structure used as part of a system to provide wired or wireless telecommunications services” is added to the critical infrastructure definition.