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Note: This website is intended to provide general information about legal issues, crop insurance, farm policy, and other risk management issues and should not be construed as providing legal advice. It should not be cited or relied upon as legal authority. For advice about how the issues discussed here might apply to your individual situation, you should consult an attorney.
Welcome to the Maryland Risk Management Education Blog, provided by the University of Maryland Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. This blog provides readers with information on risk management issues important to Maryland agriculture, upcoming events, and new materials that may interest readers.
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The Week in Ag News, Feb. 20th Edition
Happy Friday everyone (or Saturday if you get this emailed to you the day after) and hopefully everyone has survived the snow and cold weather we have had this week. Below are some news updates you might want to keep on your radar. New ALEI Publication Released. Sarah Everhart has completed a publication covering when do government inspectors have a right to come on your property. This is a topic we are often asked about on many occasions and Sarah has done an excellent jo
Paul Goeringer
Feb 20, 20153 min read
Constitutional Standing: When Can a Party Actually Bring a Lawsuit?
Recently a U.S. Federal District Court ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could turn over publically gathered data on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO) to three environmental groups. American Farm Bureau and National Pork Producers Council (“Plaintiffs”) had expressed concerns the disclosure would violate privacy rights of their members. The district court found the Plaintiffs had no standing to bring the claim. American courts
Paul Goeringer
Feb 17, 20153 min read
Gleaning, Food Banks, and a Farmer’s Liability
Image of produce by Edwin Remsberg This post should not be construed as legal advice. It has been bitterly cold here lately, but soon (hopefully) the weather will turn warm and farmers will be back in the field planting vegetables for the upcoming season. As these vegetables and fruits are harvested, farmers may produce excess amounts to meet current contracts, CSA shares, farmers’ market needs, etc., and look at supplying excess crops to area food banks. Allowing the coll
Paul Goeringer
Feb 10, 20152 min read
Wait, Now You’re Telling Me Manure Can Be a Solid Waste?!?
This post is not intended to be legal advice. Recently a Federal district court in Washington state found that manure from a dairy farm could be considered “solid waste” under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). You are probably asking yourself, “Paul, why do I care what some court in Washington state did?” Well the answer is simple: RCRA is a Federal act and could potentially impact decisions interpreting RCRA as it applies to agriculture in othe
Paul Goeringer
Feb 3, 20154 min read
New Commodity Programs: Who Is Considered a Landowner?
I realize many of you have questions related to the 2014 Farm Bill and the new programs that USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) and Risk Management Agency are working to implement. Good resources on many of the common questions exist; see AREC’s 2014 Farm Bill Page which is part of our Crop Insurance Extension page to find links to many of those tools. While many of those tools were developed for producers, we may overlook the fact that landowners/landlords potentially will q
Paul Goeringer
Jan 29, 20154 min read
2014 Farm Bill Makes Changes to the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program
The Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) was established in 1994 and administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). NAP is a risk management tool for those producers growing crops not currently covered by a crop insurance product. The 2014 Farm Bill reauthorized NAP and made some dramatic changes to the program. NAP now offers coverage from the 50-percent level to the 65-percent level with producers able to buy-up coverage in 5-percent increments at up to 1
Paul Goeringer
Jan 27, 20157 min read
Hunting Leases: Checklist for Those Considering a Hunting Lease
This post is not a substitute for legal advice Recently, I’ve been asked some questions about developing hunting leases. I realize this information probably would have been useful before the start of deer season, but I’m readying you for the next hunting season. This resource provides a thorough checklist of many issues you should consider when developing a written hunting lease. Hunting leases can be a useful tool for farmers looking to reduce deer
Paul Goeringer
Jan 22, 20154 min read
New Crop Insurance Option for Diversified Operations: Whole Farm Revenue Protection
By Paul Goeringer and Howard Leathers The 2014 Farm Bill authorized USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) to develop a new type of revenue insurance product, Whole-Farm Revenue Protection (WFRP). WFRP provides a risk management tool for all commodities on farms with up to $8.5 million in insured revenue. WFRP is not intended for one specific crop, like corn, wheat, or soybeans like traditional revenue and yield insurance products, but is intended to cover all crops and livest
Paul Goeringer
Jan 16, 20155 min read
Wait Manure A Pollutant?!?! Potentially, But Let Me Explain Why It Is In Wisconsin
This post does not construe legal advice. For regular readers, you will notice that from time to time, I like to highlight a recent court decision that focuses on an area of concern. Today, I’m going to highlight a recent decision involving an insurance company, a farmer, and how the term “manure” could be handled under the farmer’s general farm coverage policy with the insurance company. In Wilson Mutual Insurance Co. v. Falk (Wis. 2014), Falk was out applying m
Paul Goeringer
Jan 15, 20153 min read
Frequently Asked Questions: Do I Have the Right to Growing Crops When the Lease Terminates?
This post should not be construed as legal advice. For those who have seen my leasing publication Agricultural Leasing in Maryland, you should realize I did not answer every question related to agricultural leasing. One of those questions is how to handle growing crops when a lease terminates. What rights does the tenant have in the growing crop? This question may be answered in multiple ways depending on the type of crops being grown, language in th
Paul Goeringer
Jan 5, 20154 min read
Supplemental Coverage Option Now a Part of the Federal Crop Insurance Program
By Paul Goeringer and Howard Leathers Introduction The 2014 Farm Bill created Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO), a new add-on crop insurance option which provides supplemental coverage on a producer’s underlying crop insurance policy. SCO operates by mimicking a producer’s individual crop insurance coverage and increasing the protection to 86 percent of the producers APH yield and price election. An SCO loss payment occurs when the county average actual yield (b
Paul Goeringer
Dec 15, 20144 min read
2015 Corn And Soybeans Trend-Adjustments Released For Trend-Adjusted APH Crop Insurance Revenue and
I post about law a lot, but another portion of my job is to work with Howard Leathers on our crop insurance education partnership program with USDA’s Risk Management Agency and the Maryland Department of Agriculture. Back in August, we released an updated version of the Trend Adjusted Yield Crop Insurance Option fact sheet, reflecting the 2015 crop year trend-adjustment (TA) factors for wheat. RMA has recently updated the soybean and corn TA factors, which remained the same
Paul Goeringer
Dec 14, 20143 min read
Another County Ordinance Restricting GMOs Found Invalid
Back in September, I wrote about a Kauai County ordinance banning the production of GMO crops invalidated by the federal district court in Hawaii. Recently a Hawaii County ordinance banning GMO production met a similar fate in Hawai’i Floriculture & Nursery Ass’n v. County of Hawaii, Civ. No. 14-00267, 2014 WL 6685817 (D. Haw. Nov. 26, 2014). Similar to the Kauai County ordinance, the Hawaii County ordinance was preempted under state law and portions of federal law.
Paul Goeringer
Dec 8, 20144 min read
Legal Needs of the Maryland Agricultural Community
Editors’ note: This column originally appeared in the Nov. 25, 2014 edition of the Delmarva Farmer (Vol. 39, No. 39). It should be noted that even Paul feels like he has beaten the needs assessment to death with this article. This month, I’m taking a break from discussing a legal issue with you and focusing on a recently completed legal needs assessment from the Agricultural Law Education Initiative (ALEI). The report was prepared by Wanding Zhang, former ALEI
Paul Goeringer
Dec 2, 20143 min read
The Obligatory Phosphorus Management Tool Post: How a Regulation Becomes a Law
By Ashley Ellixson and Paul Goeringer We’ve decided not to do a short overview of the recently announced Phosphorus Management Tool (PMT) regulations from the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA). The feeling is another overview of the regulations would be redundant and fall on an audience who has heard enough about PMT. You’ve all heard how the regulations will potentially impact nutrient management plans for your farm. Plus it is diving into science, and we really ar
Paul Goeringer
Dec 1, 20144 min read
Frequently Asked Questions: Paul, How Do I Set a Good Rental Rate?
Back in September, I posted cash rents at the county level for Maryland and Delaware. The county cash rent averages compiled by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is one way to see how your rental rate compares with others in the county. But you have to remember that it is an average and some cash rental prices will be above and some will be below that average. The other thing to keep in mind is that average may not always work for every operation.
Paul Goeringer
Nov 23, 20143 min read
Healthy Living: Do Right-to-Farm Laws Take into Account Public Health?
This post shall not construe legal or political advice and should be only utilized for educational benefits. We pick back up with our right-to-farm (RTF) series, today looking at whether RTF laws protect public health. Remember, if you care to read any earlier posts with Ashley Newhall covering life before RTF laws existed, Mae Johnson walking you through an ag mediation involving the RTF law, or my comparing Maryland’s law with other states’ laws, they are avail
Paul Goeringer
Nov 21, 20143 min read
How Does Maryland’s Right-to-Farm Law Compare With Other States?
I am continuing the right-to-farm (RTF) law series today with a comparison of Maryland’s law with other states’ RTF laws. To recap, Ashley has provided an overview of what happened pre-RTF laws. For anyone interested in a good overview of pre-RTF law court decisions by state, please send me an email and I will send you a copy. Mae Johnson has provided you with an idea of what goes into mediating an action arising under Maryland’s RTF law. By the end, hopefully you will ha
Paul Goeringer
Nov 20, 20144 min read
New Extension Fact Sheet on Livestock Liability Issues Has Been Released
You may have noticed here lately we have announced a few new publications have been released. You maybe asking yourselves, “Paul, how do you write blog posts, present at meetings, and still have time to author publications?” The answer is simple; these have been working their way through the UME peer review process and were done months ago. We will not always be turning out publications at this level, so enjoy them while they are being released. Today, the Agriculture Law
Paul Goeringer
Nov 14, 20141 min read
Forms of Property Ownership: An Important Feature of Your Estate Plan or Business Organization
This post should not be construed as legal advice. Many people often think that an estate plan is just a will, but it is much more than that. Your estate plan will typically include documents and tools that distribute your property according to your wishes at your death. One way to potentially accomplish this is through titling property effectively. Using the right title with property is one way to distribute property on your death. In the law, titl
Paul Goeringer
Nov 12, 20145 min read
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