Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal Research Blogs -> FSU College of Law Library Blog

Legal Research

: FSU College of Law Library Blog

"Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal"

By pbingham

                                                                            

Author and "beyond organic" farming educator Joel Salatin recently visited North Florida, sparking local interest in his newly published book "Everything I Want to Do is Illegal."   Expanding on his 2003 article in Acres (the national journal of sustainable agriculture), Saladin illustrates how the regulations and laws of the United States "favor industrial global corporate food systems, and discourage community-based food commerce." 

What's ok?  What's not ok?   How is a fledgling  farmer, or any interested person to navigate the many legalities of commercial agriculture? 

Happily, the National Agricultural Law Center  provides easy access to a wealth of material.  User-friendly and efficiently organized, it's a great resource for links to primary law and in-depth analysis of the industry.  Especially nifty is a collection of 33 electronic "Reading Rooms," each devoted to an agricultural or food law topic, such as "Animal Feeding Operations," "BioSecurity," "Corporate Farming  Laws," and "Food Safety."  Each electronic room has links to major statutes, regulations, case law, research articles, government and Congressional publications, and other resources.  Other features of the site include: 

            --  full texts of all the United States Farm Bills, 1933 to the present 

            --  a section indexing Congressional Research Service Reports on agricultural                       and food law topics

            --  a bibliography of scholarly articles and books organized under 48 legal                               subject  categories

            --  the online National AgLaw Reporter newsletter

            --  in-depth analytical reports written by practicing attorneys and legal scholars

            --  an online "Reference Desk" of resource links

Whether you're a commercial farmer, a hobby farmer, a law student, or an attorney with an interest in agriculture regulation, the National Agricultural Law Center is a handy website to visit.  And for a living example of a local-market, environmentally-friendly farm operation, take a look at Joel Salatin's Polyface Farm!

Posted by Patricia Bingham-Harper
                     

Full post as published by FSU College of Law Library Blog on September 20, 2007 (boomark / email).