What to Do If Immigration Officers Visit the Farm

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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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FSMA and Grain Elevators

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FSMA and Grain Elevators

FSMA rules can apply to just about any entity in the animal or human food supply chain, from the producers to packagers to transporters and anyone in between. But do the new rules apply to typical grain elevators? In this blog post, I answer that question: usually no, because typical grain elevators are exempt from the most common FSMA regulations.

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

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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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Food Safety Modernization Act: The Produce Rule

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Food Safety Modernization Act: The Produce Rule

After years of legislative wrangling, rule-making, and extensive public feedback, the US Food and Drug Administration is finally implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The FSMA authorizes new regulations for farmers who grow certain kinds of fresh produce and for certain facilities that process food. The Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption (known more commonly as the “Produce Rule”) can have an enormous effect on farmers. 

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New Guidance for Genetically Engineered Organisms: What Does it Mean?

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New Guidance for Genetically Engineered Organisms: What Does it Mean?

The USDA Animal Plant and Health Inspection Services just announced new guidance for extension requests for genetically engineered organisms. What does this mean for the public? Hopefully, it will lead to shorter review times, flexibility in extension requests, and more predictability from the government review processes. This should mean more innovation and less red tape.

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