By Mayhah Suri
Missouri’s Right-to-Farm Constitutional Amendment Doesn’t Protect Pot Growers A Missouri trial judge has ruled that the constitutional amendment Right-to-Farm does not give a person a right to grow pot in his/her home. According to the judge, pot was not a common crop planted for cultivation and harvest in the state. The defendants plan to appeal. This is the 3rd time a trial court has ruled that Missouri’s amendment does not protect the right to grow marijuana. Learn more about this decision here, http://bit.ly/2dHSvfu.
USDA to Issue $7 billion in ARC and PLC Payments USDA has announced $7 billion in ARC-CO and PLC payments to producers around the US for the 2015 crop year. USDA has not yet released the actual data to be used in calculating the county payments, that data is expected in the coming days. To read more about the release, see http://bit.ly/2duMjou. To see FSA’s county maps of payments, see http://bit.ly/2dVYD4n.
New Publication on Pesticide Drift Liability Has Been Released Although many producers are in the middle of harvest, a new publication has been released covering pesticide drift liability. The new publication highlights recent court decisions over drift liability and provides sprayers with tips on how to manage liability in their operations. The publication is available at http://go.umd.edu/PesticideDrift.
Updated Farm Transition and Conservation Easements Publication Available Conservation easements can be a useful tool when developing a farm succession plan. To keep up with recent tax law changes related to donating a conservation easement, Conservation Easements: A Useful Tool for Farm Transition and Estate Planning has been updated to provide landowners with a basic understanding of how a conservation easement might work in farm succession or estate plans. Click here, http://go.umd.edu/ConEaseEP.
America’s Dairy Farmers Dump 43 Million Gallons of Excess Milk Farmers in the U.S. are pouring out tens of millions of gallons of excess milk, amid a massive glut that has slashed prices and has filled warehouses with cheese. More than 43 million gallons’ worth of milk were dumped in fields, manure lagoons or animal feed, or have been lost on truck routes or discarded at plants in the first eight months of 2016, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To read the full story click here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-dairy-farmers-dump-43-million-gallons-of-excess-milk-1476284353
Perdue: More oysters, Not Less Fertilizer, Are Solution for Bay Cleanup Jim Perdue, chairman of the Salisbury based chicken business that bears his family’s name, says chickens aren’t the biggest problem facing the Chesapeake Bay. And oysters are the solution. To read the full story click here: http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/blog/bal-gr-perdue-more-oysters-not-less-fertilizer-are-solution-for-bay-cleanup-20160927-story.html
National Class Certified in Syngenta Lawsuit This week a federal judge in Kansas approved the lawsuits brought by U.S. farmers against Syngenta for selling seed in the U.S. that was unapproved in China as a class action. Approved were a nationwide class and several statewide (Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota). To read the Reuters story, click here http://reut.rs/2dErTwT.
Updated Publication on Conservation Easements as a Farm Succession Tool Now Available Conservation easements can be a useful tool when developing your farm succession or estate plan. With this in mind, Dr. Lori Lynch and Paul Goeringer have updated Conservation Easements: A Useful Tool for Farm Transition and Estate Planning to aid landowners in understanding how conservation easements can be a tool in their farm succession plans. The publication is available at http://go.umd.edu/ConEaseEP.