"Pink Slime" on Trial

"Pink Slime" on Trial

A major agriculture lawsuit is finally underway in South Dakota. The defendant is ABC Television; the plaintiff is Beef Products, Inc., a South Dakota meatpacker. The lawsuit centers on ABC's repeated use of the phrase pink slime to describe BPI's lean finely textured beef in March 2012. Five years ago, BPI sued ABC in a $1.9 billion defamation suit under South Dakota law. 

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What to Do If Immigration Officers Visit the Farm

What to Do If Immigration Officers Visit the Farm

The Trump administration has made aggressively searching for and deporting undocumented immigrants (including farm workers) a priority. The first question farmers usually ask is what to do if an immigration officer shows up on the farm. I suggest the following steps:

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What Does the USDA's Agreement with Montana Beef Mean for You?

What Does the USDA's Agreement with Montana Beef Mean for You?

On December 22, 2016, the USDA entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with the Montana Beef Council ("MBC"). This MOU could affect other states' beef councils or qualified checkoff boards for other commodities. 

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Where's the Beef: Are Checkoff Funds Being Used to Violate the First Amendment?

Where's the Beef: Are Checkoff Funds Being Used to Violate the First Amendment?

A lawsuit in Montana grabbed the attention of checkoff boards across the country. R-CALF sued the Montana state beef checkoff council in May, asking a federal court to prohibit the council from spending federal checkoff dollars on advertising unless the state cattle producers paying the fees have agreed to it. A federal magistrate recently issued an opinion agreeing with R-CALF.

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What Do the Controversial New GIPSA Rules Really Say...and Does it Matter?

What Do the Controversial New GIPSA Rules Really Say...and Does it Matter?

New GIPSA rules were announced on Tuesday. There are plenty of opinions out there criticizing and praising the regulations, but what do the new rules really say? And, with the incoming Trump administration, does it matter?

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