Legal Niches

• During the farm crisis of the 1980s and 90s, I worked with midwestern farm families who desperately needed legal help, whose best efforts were thwarted by forces beyond their control, and who often represented the very best of an agrarian tradition of hard work and love of the land.
• Many of our commercial laws recognized the unique nature of agricultural finance and a lack of legal sophistication in the farming community. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, there were special rules for crop financing, exclusions for agricultural liens, and farmers were often not considered to be "merchants." Farmers Home Administration (now renamed Farm Service Agency) was a major direct lender, serving as the lender of last resort.
• In contrast, today many farmers are very sophisticated and in some instances one could say too savvy about angling their rights under the law. Published case law often reflects complex farm program or federal crop insurance "planning" or the sorting out of huge feedlot operations when check-kiting schemes collapse. And when the "mom and pop" operation seeks redress in the law, it is often not available. Revised Article 9 eliminated most of the special provisions applicable to agriculture, and the law has moved away from some of its more paternalistic protections.
• It seems that the application of commercial laws to agricultural operations is still interesting and important in that the products are so unique, but the study of these laws now seems to be based more on interest and intrigue as opposed to really different treatment under the law.

So, it now appears to me that the starting point of "agricultural law" should not be about farmers, but about farming. How do we want our food to be grown, by whom, and what food do we want to consume?

Preliminary thoughts, to be sure. But a start . . .