Confined Animal Feeding Operations: Arkansas Environmental Organization Joins Challenge to USDA Rule Changes for Loans to Medium-Sized CAFOs
December 18, 2018
by Jordan P. Wimpy
The White River Waterkeeper, of Arkansas, recently joined other environmental and animal rights advocacy organizations to file a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) 2016 final rule categorically excluding certain FSA funding decisions for…
Inspection Warrant/OSHA Enforcement: Federal Appellate Court Addresses Poultry Processing Facility's Motion to Quash
December 18, 2018
by Walter G. Wright, Jr.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (“Court”) addressed in an October 9th decision a dispute regarding a judicially-issued inspection warrant that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) sought in regards to a poultry processing facility (“Mar-Jac”) in the…
Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Compliance Provisions: U.S. Department of Agriculture Interim Rule/Revisions
December 10, 2018
by Jordan P. Wimpy
On Friday December 7, 2018, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published in the Federal Register an interim rule for the Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Compliance regulations of the Food Security Act of 1985. The interim rule clarifies the Department’s…
Dicamba: EPA Extends Registration of Controversial Product
November 1, 2018
by Jordan P. Wimpy
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced late yesterday evening that it extended the registration of the herbicide dicamba for “over-the-top” use for a period of two years – until December 20, 2020 – pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (“FIFRA”). Dicamba is…
Where the Blacktop Ends: Promising Developments at the Intersection of Agricultural Production and Urban Living
March 20, 2018
by Jordan P. Wimpy
With the Trump administration’s rollback of federal regulations proceeding at a steady pace, and with new federal tax policy firmly established, and with the next federal Farm Bill promised by year’s end, Arkansas’s farmers would be forgiven for thinking that nothing new was percolating up from the…