By Sarah Fielder
Trump Releases Proposed Budget for FY18 On Monday, President Trump announced his proposed budget for 2018. The budget would slash $38 billion in farm commodity programs and crop insurance (http://reut.rs/2rBiRqY) and cut other programs relied on by rural America (http://wapo.st/2qYbJEx). The budget has been declared dead on arrival by many in Congress https://usat.ly/2qlxj1C.
Is Your Organic Food Really Organic Food? The Washington Post this week featured an opinion piece by M. Jason Kuo discussing issues with the organic program. The problem, according to the author, is that USDA does not enforce the organic standards on imported foods and the US may not have federally recognized inspectors in foreign countries. Check out the other issues raised by the author here http://wapo.st/2qhLa9V.
Farmers Reminded to Participate in Upcoming Surveys Producers are being reminded to participate in 2 upcoming surveys that will help determine crop production and supply levels for 2017. To learn more about the surveys, click here http://bit.ly/2qlwZA6.
Crop Insurance Workshop Sept. 12 Save the date for the annual crop insurance workshop on Sept. 12 at the Comfort Inn in Bowie, MD. We will be releasing a list of speakers later this summer.
Supreme Court Denies Appeal in Egg Salmonella Case This week the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal brought by Jack and Peter DeCosters who were convicted of misdemeanor food safety violations in relationship to the salmonella issues with Quality Eggs in 2010. To read more about the case, click here http://dmreg.co/2rkz0l7.
Model Aircraft Not Required to Register Late last week, the DC Court of Appeals ruled that the FAA had wrongly applied registration requirements to model aircraft. This means many who have bought drones for hobby purposes may not have to register those drones after all. Drones bought to be used for commercial operations would not be impacted by this ruling. To read more about this ruling, click here http://bit.ly/2qj2DPu and the opinion is available here http://bit.ly/2rTWpXv.
Should States Allow Revocable Life Estate Deeds Developing a farm succession plan is not an easy thing for many operators to do. A soon to be published note in the Drake Journal of Ag Law looks at why states should consider the adoption of revocable life estate deeds to benefit agriculture. To read the article and see how states allowing these deeds could impact agriculture, click here http://bit.ly/2rTWpXv.
Maryland Awards First Medical Marijuana Cultivation License The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission gave final approval to the first company to win a cultivation license under the state’s MMJ program. Go here to read the full story: https://go.umd.edu/cx9.