Overview Academics like to argue academic things. Most of the time, those arguments remain academic and are not worth a producer’s time. But occasionally an academic theory escapes the seminar room and begins to affect the legal rules under which farmers and ranchers operate. The growing international movement to recognize […]Read more »
Article
985 posts
Overview For more than a decade, few federal environmental regulations have generated more uncertainty – and more frustration – for farmers, ranchers and rural landowners than the federal definition of “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, under the Clean Water Act. The latest development suggests that the federal government […]Read more »
Overview A recent federal court decision has created significant uncertainty for agricultural employers who rely on the H-2A program. In United Farm Workers v. United States Department of Labor,[1] the federal district court for the Eastern District of California held that the Department of Labor’s (DOL) new methodology for calculating […]Read more »
Overview Agricultural law rarely produces a single headline that captures everything farmers and ranchers need to know. Instead, the most important developments often appear in seemingly unrelated areas such as farm-program eligibility, water rights, agricultural data, secured lending, and neighboring-land disputes. Several recent developments illustrate an important common theme: farmers […]Read more »
Overview Dolly Parton’s death at age 80 offers an opportunity to think about something much larger than the life of a remarkable entertainer. Her story is, in many respects, a story about the enduring importance of the American farm – and about something that much of modern society has forgotten. […]Read more »
Overview The Colorado River is approaching one of the most consequential moments in the modern history of Western water law. The existing legal architecture governing the river is colliding with a physical reality that can no longer be ignored. Simply stated, the river is not producing as much water as […]Read more »
Overview The central policy question is not simply how to make beef cheaper. It is how to increase the quantity of beef available to American consumers while preserving the economic incentive for American ranchers to rebuild the cattle herd. That distinction is critical because the present problem is fundamentally a […]Read more »
Overview Property rights are fundamental to farming and ranching. But what those rights actually include (and how secure they are) can become complicated when family disputes, government regulation, utility easements, property-tax valuation, or development agreements enter the picture. Five recent cases illustrate different aspects of the problem. Taken together, they […]Read more »
Overview A farmer’s death creates obvious estate-planning questions: Who receives the land? Who gets the equipment and livestock? Who will operate the farm? What happens to the debt? But for a farm that participates in USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs, there is another set of questions that can be […]Read more »
Overview The historically poor 2026 wheat harvest is serious news for Kansas agriculture. It can mean fewer bushels to sell, less revenue available to cover expenses, and real financial pressure for producers whose operations are heavily dependent upon wheat. But a bad wheat crop and an agricultural economic collapse are […]Read more »