Leading issues surrounding agriculture and the environment.
The Schroeder Ag Blog addresses issues facing farmers, ranchers, and businesses involved with crops, livestock, dairy, and meat production.
Indiana is leading a group of states in a lawsuit against Massachusetts over a new livestock and poultry law requiring any pork, veal, or eggs sold in the state to be derived from animals raised with space to turn around and lie down without touching an enclosure.
Read MoreA federal court stayed the mandate requiring many livestock producers to report air emissions from manure until January 22, 2018. We are awaiting further guidance from EPA. In the meantime, here is what others are saying.
Read MoreLivestock producers are not yet required to report air emissions under the Clean Air Act, but that will soon change. On January 22, 2018, this new obligation for farms is expected to take effect.
Read MoreOn December 14, 2017, a farmer group filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's rollback of two controversial GIPSA rules intended to protect individual farmers.
Read MoreI recently read an article called "Do You Care If Your Fish Dinner Was Raised Humanely?". It got me thinking: was aquaculture the next industry to be targeted by animal activists? All signs point to yes.
Read MoreThe past 365 days have been a wild ride, complete with major changes to federal programs relied on by farmers and ag businesses. Four federal stories dominated 2017: WOTUS, NAFTA, GIPSA, and Air Emissions.
Read MoreA November 15, 2017 deadline for livestock operations to report air emissions was delayed by a federal court. The reporting requirements are delayed until at least January 22, 2017. Hold off on any reporting until we hear more from the Court and/or the EPA.
Read MoreWe are launching a new series of short webcasts, designed to be watched during a break in your busy day. This is the second webcast and it addresses zoning tips for livestock operations.
Read MoreThe Indiana Legislature's Interim Study Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources is considering whether any changes should be made to Indiana confined feeding laws.
Read MoreThe Indiana Court of Appeals recently affirmed that a northern Indiana feed and farm supply store can sue a Michigan man in Indiana court for unpaid seed bills. The Appellate Court ruled the court in LaGrange County has personal jurisdiction over Harold Walters, who lives just over the border in Michigan.
Read MoreLivestock facilities must go through numerous steps in order to operate, including state permit approval and county siting approval. State permit appeals in Indiana are heard by the Office of Environmental Adjudication. Permittees may represent themselves before the OEA, but they do so at their peril.
Read MoreLivestock facilities in rural areas may be considered "legal nonconforming uses" and therefore be exempt from new zoning ordinances. Indiana law, in particular, gives special protection to agricultural land uses.
Read More"Pesticide drift" is not a new issue, but it has taken center stage this summer as we hear widespread reports of crops damaged by Dicamba. This post suggests the initial steps a farmer should take if they believe their crop has been damaged by another person's Dicamba use.
Read MoreA 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.
Read MoreFarms can be dangerous places. Most agricultural operations are in the full swing of a busy spring, which is a good time to review workplace injury protocol. Do you and your employees know what to do if someone is injured in the field or barn?
Read MoreThe 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:
Read MoreThe Illinois legislature has introduced a number of bills directed at the food and agriculture industries. Most of these proposed bills are intended to make life easier for agriculture. This post provides a rundown on the bills which could affect Illinois livestock, cottage food industries, fields, farmers markets, or agricultural businesses.
Read MoreFSMA 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.
Read MoreA federal judge recently dismissed the Des Moines Water Works case, holding water quality problems caused by nitrates are for the legislature (not the court system) to fix.
Read MoreLet's say you want to expand your livestock operations, build a new manure storage structure, or start an agritourism business focused on beekeeping or growing hops. You know you have to complete a state application for such an operation, but what about the local level? Here are my tips for navigating the local zoning scene.
Read MoreThe Indiana Supreme Court is currently considering when an appeal of a BZA decision must be filed in order to be timely. The outcome of this decision will impact so many agricultural land use projects around the state.
The team from Janzen Schroeder will attend the Livestock Summit sponsored by the Indiana Corn Growers Association and Indiana Soybean Alliance.
Brianna Schroeder will speak at a webinar sponsored by the Center for Energy Education on the topic “Preparing for Renewable Energy Leases: What Every Landowner Should Know.”
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USDA may have pulled the plug on the Climate Smart Commodities grants that were funding many climate change programs, but there are still a number of private industry offerings on the market. How can you sort through the various programs to pick one that is right for your farm?