The Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced in late February that it's delaying enforcement of certain requirements set forth in its Interim Final Rule (IFR) on the Domestic Hemp Production Program (84 FR 58522) under certain circumstances until October 31, 2021, or until publication of the final rule on such hemp production program, whichever occurs first ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched all aspects of both the hemp and marijuana industries and their supply chains, as many other industries have experienced. To provide significant relief for the entire economy, the U.S. federal government passed The Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), collectively, the largest aid package ever passed ...
The Bay Area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara, and the City of Berkeley have jointly issued new Shelter-in-Place orders superseding their existing March 31, 2020 Shelter-in-Place orders ...
In the context of COVID-19, the Undersecretary of Fishing and Aquaculture (Subpesca) issued Resolution No. 1068 (Res. 1068), which provides the extension in a month, of the terms for sanitary rests and harvest regulated in articles 23 Ñ and 23 R of Supreme Decree No. 319/2001, Sanitary Regulation for Aquaculture, in all farming centers. Recommendations In addition, by means of Res ...
On 30 April 2020, the European Commission adopted three implementing regulations allowing temporary derogations from the strict cartel prohibition provided for by EU competition law in three specific agricultural sectors: dairy, potato and live plants and flowers. The latter sector is said to broadly cover “live trees and other plants, bulbs, roots and the like, cut flowers and ornamental foliage” ...
COVID-19 has brought about new economic uncertainty that is disrupting supply chains, from farmers and ranchers to cooperatives, from processors to grocery stores, and all of the way down to consumers. Even solvent purchasers of agricultural products may begin to request extensions of payment terms from agricultural producers, impacting growers’ cash flow and balance sheets ...
The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) issued revised guidance to its state and county offices on making and processing loans to hemp producers. Because hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, the revised guidance is part of the USDA’s overall efforts to treat hemp as it would any other agricultural commodity with respect to available programs and services typically afforded to such commodities ...
On 4 May 2020, the Commission published the latest package of exceptional measures (announced on 22 April) to support the agricultural and food sectors that have been hit hardest by the crisis. The package of measures adopted by the Commission includes temporary derogations from EU competition rules for milk, flowers and potatoes, support for private storage of dairy and meat products and flexibility in the application of market support programs ...
The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (“Sernapesca”) has issued a series of resolutions. Resolutions No 672/2020 , No 725/2020 and No 805/2020 - that incorporate new measures to those indicated in Resolution No. 565 dated March 16, 2020 which authorized the adoption of certain measures in salmon farming centers in the context of COVID-19 ...
It goes without saying that the economic upheavals caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are posing countless challenges for all companies, whether or not they are pursuing their activities within the limits imposed by the governments of Canada and Quebec. Food producers such as agricultural and food processing businesses, considered by the Quebec government to be essential services, are not exempt from this harsh reality ...
Considering the Covid-19 pandemic, the Agriculture and Livestock Service (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero, "SAG") issued the Exempt Resolution No. 3,439, dated May 19, 2020 to update the Program of Exports of Origin. (View update here.) This Resolution was published in the Official Gazette on June 10, 2020 ...
Within the agricultural and food supply chain, significant imbalances in bargaining power between suppliers and buyers of agri-food products are frequent. Those imbalances in bargaining power are likely to lead to unfair trading practices. The Directive 2019/633 (the “Directive”) aims to ensure that agri-food companies are protected against these unfair practices. Scope of the Directive The Directive’s scope is very limited ...
The popularity of smokable hemp has rapidly increased since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp at the federal level. But the Farm Bill allows states to regulate hemp production in ways “more stringent” than federal law, and some states have used this leeway to ban smokable hemp to some degree. The result is a patchwork of state laws regarding smokable hemp’s legality, adding complexity to a legal landscape that was already nuanced enough ...
On September 30, 2020 important changes to the Agricultural Land Commission Act, [SBC 2002] Chapter 36 and the associated regulations came into force that may significantly affect the prospects for removal of private land from the Agricultural Land Reserve (“ALR”). These changes are of particular note to private owners of ALR lands slated for future development ...
On November 5, 2020, the Washington Supreme Court altered a 60-year provision of Washington’s Minimum Wage Statute when it issued its decision in Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Brothers Dairy. The court held that the agricultural overtime exemption at RCW 49.46.130(2)(g), which exempted agricultural employers from paying overtime at a rate of 1.5 times the regularly hourly rate, violated article I, section 12 of the Washington State Constitution as applied to dairy workers ...
Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle Raising and Supply publishes Ordinance establishing working group for the development of the strategic agenda for sustainable agriculture. On February 1, 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture, Cattle Raising and Supply ("MAPA") published Ordinance No. 26 ("Ordinance"), establishing the working group for the development of the strategic agenda for sustainable agriculture ...
The future of agriculture in Scotland is at a pivotal point. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the challenges faced by farmers and crofters who have worked tirelessly to ensure food production and land management continues at a time when other industries have been brought to a standstill ...
The Sixth Circuit recently ruled that an agricultural “multi-service finance company” had no claim to the proceeds of produce held in trust pursuant to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA”)[1] and could not circumvent the security interests of a senior lender ...
Post-Brexit, it’s now even more important for farming families to understand how changes to direct payments and valuation of farmland can affect succession, asset protection and family disputes. We explain what you need to know. Leaving the EU resulted in the UK leaving the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which paid farmers direct payments and has been a significant source of income for many farmers ...
On March 16, 2021, Decree No. 64 / 2020 of the Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism, was published in the Official Gazette, approving the Regulation that establishes conditions for the treatment and final disposal of wastes from aquaculture activities (the "Regulation") ...
Washington’s Supreme Court disrupted the state’s agricultural industry on November 5, 2020, when it held that the agricultural overtime exemption at RCW 49.46.130(2)(g) violated the state’s constitution as applied to dairy workers. As a result, all dairy employers immediately had to start paying their workers overtime at a rate of 1.5 times their regular hourly rate. While not explicitly addressed, the Martinez-Cuevas v ...
The Ministry of Security, through theExecutive Decree No. 199 of May 7th, 2021(hereinafter the “Decree”), adjusts the requirements for obtaining atemporary residence permitand apermanent residence permitas a Forest Investor, as follows: The forest investor residence permit may be requested in the following modalities: (i) temporary residence permit, (ii) permanent residence permit in 2 stages, and (iii) permanent residence permit in 1 stage ...
On March 18, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021 (HR 1603) (FWMA).1 The proposed FWMA would streamline the H-2A temporary agricultural worker program, providing a path to legal immigration status for undocumented farmworkers and their family members. The FWMA would also require all agricultural employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of their workers ...
Free movement of workers from the European Economic Area (EEA) was ended by Brexit and the UK Government introduced the EU Settlement Scheme to bridge the gap between the UK’s two immigrations systems of those coming from the EEA, and those coming to the UK from outwith the EEEA. The EU Settlement Scheme is a mechanism for any EEA citizen who lived in the UK before 31 December 2020 to remain lawfully in the UK ...
Agricultural rent reviews have been a source of controversy within the industry for many years. After a period of 15 years or so where there was little rent review activity in the agricultural tenanted sector between the early 1990s and the mid-2000s, a sharp spike in commodity prices during the course of 2007 led to a large number of rent review notices being served ...
