Legal Niches

Farmers Market in St. Paul, Minnesota

Posted on November 27, 2009
I traveled north for Thanksgiving, spending the holiday with family on our farm north of Hastings, Minnesota. On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of visiting the St. Paul Farmers' Market where we picked up our pre-ordered fresh turkey from the Otis Family Farm...

FAO Report on Climate Change and Food Safety

Posted on November 10, 2009
The FAO issued a new report this week, Climate Change: Implications for Food Safety. While other impacts of global warming are more generally discussed, this report explores some of the food safety impacts that have yet to be widely considered.Here is the abstract of the report:The paper aims to identify potential impacts of anticipated changes in climate on food safety and their control at all stages of the food chain...

New Ag & Food Law Community on Kiva

Posted on November 01, 2009
I received a wonderful present last Spring - a gift certificate with Kiva. What better present for someone who teaches Agricultural Finance & Credit. In class, we discuss the need for capital in agricultural operations, the legal issues that arise in financing transactions, and the impact of financial stresses on farming operations...

Accepting Applications to the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law

Posted on October 26, 2009
We are now accepting applications for the LL.M. Program in Agricultural & Food Law for the class beginning in Fall 2010.While agricultural law issues have always been important, recent concerns about food safety and food labeling have highlighted the connections between agricultural and food law...

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Traceability

Posted on October 22, 2009
I watched this interesting news video on the difficulties of tracking tainted food with my Food Law & Policy class. It is from the PBS News Hour.

On the Farm With CSI Miami

Posted on October 20, 2009
Prime time television drama takes on agricultural law. Here's the teaser for this week's episode of CSI Miami, Bad Seed:When several seemingly unrelated deaths turn out to be part of a sudden outbreak of E. Coli, Alexx returns to help the team as they race to find the source of it to stop the death toll from rising...

Minority Farmers

Posted on October 18, 2009
I recently participated in the Farmers Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) Board meeting. I was elected to serve on the FLAG Board last year.For those new to FLAG, its work is described as follows:Farmers' Legal Action Group, Inc. (FLAG) is a nonprofit law center dedicated to providing legal services to family farmers and their rural communities in order to help keep family farmers on the land...

The Wall Street Journal "Puts up" Produce

Posted on October 15, 2009
As someone who grew up learning the art and science of home canning from my mother, I was both delighted and a little amused to read today's Wall Street Journal's article, Putting up Produce: Yes You Can. It comes complete with a slide show on canning pickles...

Food Safety Discussion on Larry King Live

Posted on October 13, 2009
Last night's Larry King Live show discussed food safety issues, in particular food safety and meat. Bill Marler, noted food safety advocate and personal injury lawyer and Patrick Boyle, president and CEO of the American Meat Institute were among the guests...

Ohio Agricultural Law Symposium

Posted on October 10, 2009
Last Friday, I had the pleasure of addressing the Ohio Agricultural Law Symposium sponsored by The Ohio State University and the Ohio State Bar Association. My invitation came from Peggy Kirk Hall, a colleague from the American Agricultural Law Association (AALA)...

Many Thanks to the AALA

Posted on October 09, 2009
The annual AALA conference was, as usual, quite enjoyable. This year two students from the University of Nebraska College of Law attended with me. Jeff Murman (second from right) and Tim Hruza (far right), both 1Ls, attended with me. The photo also includes students from the Penn State Dickenson School of Law and, of course, Secretary Vilsack...

Egan on Food Connections

Posted on October 08, 2009
The thing I enjoy about Mr. Egan is his ability to avoid overstatement. He makes 3 points that struck me as very interesting:1) people desire a connection to their food (especially in light of food borne illness): "Every now and then, we have to see our food, if only to preserve the illusion that this good earth can keep us well...

Considering Hamburger: NYTimes Report on Food Safety

Posted on October 06, 2009
The New York Times published an article on Sunday that told the tragic tale of a young woman from Minnesota who contracted a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli traced to a hamburger her mother grilled for her. Stephanie Smith, now just 22 barely survived, and she was left paralyzed as a result of severe nerve damage...

Part Three: The Relationship Between the Level of Regulation under the FDCA and the Health Status of a Product?s Targeted Population

Posted on September 28, 2009
An Introduction to the History of Quack Medicine In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries there was a remarkable growth in the marketing of sham products to treat and cure disease. At that time, the rate at which quack medicines were being introduced into the market far outpaced the development of the science necessary to establish the efficacy and identify the risks associated with each new product...

Post Two of a Series: The Relationship Between the Level of Regulation under the FDCA and the Health Status of a Product?s Targeted Population

Posted on September 22, 2009
The first post of this series began by asking whether functional foods should be regulated as drugs if they claim to treat abnormal health conditions. For example, was it appropriate for the FDA to characterize Cheerios as a drug as a result of its advertising claim that ?you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks?? An abnormally high level cholesterol level is a serious risk factor for disease and those with high cholesterol levels are in an abnormal state of health...

Reaction to NYTimes Article on Well Contamination

Posted on September 19, 2009
I read yesterday's New York Times article, Health Ills Abound as Farms Runoff Fouls Wells with great sadness. The article focuses on the impact that the over-application of manure from large dairy farms can have on groundwater resources and the contamination of wells in Wisconsin...

Post 1 in Series: The Relationship Between the Level of Government Regulation under the FDCA and the Health Status of a Product?s Targeted Population

Posted on September 16, 2009
Cheerios -- a Drug?This past May, the FDA issued a warning letter to General Mills stating that the claim on Cheerios cereal that ?you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks? turned the Cheerios from a food into an illegally marketed drug. When bloggers heard the news, posts ran from scolding the FDA to ?grow-up,? to those which lauded the FDA?s action...

Economics Driving Dairy Herd Health Measure

Posted on September 15, 2009
A few ramblings since I haven't blogged in a while. This story came through my inbox this morning. Apparently high somatic cell counts in milk are not a food safety issue. But placing this sort of regulation on the industry would have the anticipated effect of removing supply from the market and driving up prices, while improving herd health...

There is Much to Learn from the Man Who Fed the World

Posted on September 14, 2009
Norman Borlaug, who was reluctantly known as the "father of the broad agricultural movement called the Green Revolution," passed away on Saturday night at the age of 95. As the New York Times reports, "[H]is work had a far-reaching impact on the lives of millions of people in developing countries...

Defining Natural Meat - A Chance to Comment

Posted on September 13, 2009
On Friday, September 11, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) to solicit public comment on the use of the term "natural" on meat and poultry products labeling.This has been a contentious issue...

Bill Marler Launches Online Newspaper, Food Safety News

Posted on September 12, 2009
Bill Marler, food safety expert and food borne illness litigator just announced the creation of a new online food safety newspaper that will launch on Monday, September 14. Food Safety News To Go Live. This is just another step in the fascinating public advocacy/private practice mix that is Marler's career...

The latest issue of The Agricultural

Posted on September 06, 2009
The latest issue of The Agricultural Law Brief, published by the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State Law was just posted. This issue contains information on the following topics:Ohio ballot issue proposing creation of Livestock Care Standards Board;Commonwealth Court ruling on East Brunswick Township biosolids ordinance;Litigation regarding natural gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest; "Anytime, Anywhere" rule for milk in schools; and Court of Common Pleas ruling that a poultry farm did not constitute a nuisance.

New Analysis of H1N1 and Swine: Separating Fact From Fear

Posted on September 05, 2009
Last spring when ?swine flu,? now referred to as the H1N1 virus outbreak first occurred, internet journalists suggested that one or more Mexican swine CAFO?s (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) may have been the source. See Tom Philpott?s posts on Grist and David Kirby?s on Huffington Post...

Recommendation: FORA TV

Posted on August 30, 2009
For your learning pleasure, and for an excellent teaching tool, I recommend Fora tv. FORA.tv was founded in 2005 and is funded by a select group of investors including William R. Hearst III and Adobe Ventures. It advertises itself as having "the web's largest collection of unmediated video drawn from live events, lectures, and debates...

Ag Biotech News - on Twitter

Posted on August 29, 2009
Twitter sometimes gets panned for those who tweet about what they had for breakfast and other aspects of personal life that are best left unpublished to the world. The other side of twitter is the ability of people with shared interests to communicate news and ideas efficiently...

The Ag Sector in the Ukraine

Posted on August 25, 2009
Click on the title for an interesting story from the BBC concerning agricultural development abroad.

Problem Solving Through Integration and Sustainability

Posted on August 23, 2009
Tom Friedman provides some interesting thought in his Connecting the Dots commentary in the New York Times. He begins by describing an experience deep in Botswana?s Okavango Delta, where he walked with Map Ives ? the 54-year-old director of sustainability for Wilderness Safaris...

LL.M. in Agricultural and Food Law

Posted on August 20, 2009
I am pleased to announce that we passed the final administrative hurdle and can now officially describe our LL.M. Program at the University of Arkansas School of Law as the LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law.Since 1980, we have been the only U...

Farming and Lawyering

Posted on August 12, 2009
Evoking unfortunate jokes about the old television comedy, Green Acres, the ABA Journal reports that "some lawyers are considering an unusual career move that would take them out of the courthouse and into the farm fields." See Lawyers Seek Green Acres Life Through Iowa Farming Program by Debra Cassens Weiss...

Migration, Development, and the Promise of CEDAW for Rural Women

Posted on August 09, 2009
Worth noting -Professor Lisa Pruitt, UC Davis School of Law, has been writing about rural-urban difference in relation to law for several years, but her work has not been directly about agricultural issues. Pruitt?s most recent article, however, takes a decidedly agricultural turn, and is international in scope...

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