I hope this newsletter finds everyone doing well and off to a great start in 2014! As always, I'm very grateful to be able to share some of the recent and upcoming activities of the National Agricultural Law Center. As you will read below, we've been very busy over the past few months and have a lot of upcoming research, education, and outreach activities that will keep us just as busy.

We continue to update the Center's comprehensive website, which is especially important in light of the recent enactment of the 2014 Farm Bill. Our work continues in a diverse range of areas, including federal crop insurance, the Farm Bill, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act, state and federal biofuels legislation, legal issues in animal agriculture, country-of-origin labeling, direct marketing of aquaculture and agricultural commodities, agricultural leases, and environmental law issues such as particulate matter emissions under the Clean Air Act.

We have several upcoming legal education programs, one of which will be the 1^st Annual Mid-South Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference. The CLE is hosted by the National Sea Grant Law Center, the National Agricultural Law Center, and the Arkansas Bar Association and will be held on May 16^th at Harrah's Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. For more details on our upcoming education programs, be sure to check the Center Outreach and Education page.

In conclusion, it's a great privilege to share Center developments with you, and I certainly hope you enjoy this newsletter. Other ways you can stay in contact with us include "liking" us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, and checking out The Ag & Food Law Blog that is updated throughout each day. And as always, we're continually available through email at nataglaw@uark.edu.

Sincerely,

Center Director

1st Annual Mid-South Agricultural & Environmental Law Conference

The National Agricultural Law Center, in partnership with the Arkansas Bar Association and the National Sea Grant Law Center, will be hosting the First Annual Agricultural and Environmental Law Conference on May 16, 2014 to be be held in Tunica (MS) at Harrah's Casino. The conference is approved for six hours of CLE credit in the state of Arkansas, including one ethics hour. The agenda for the conference is:

Litigating Federal Crop Insurance Disputes: Overview and Discussion of Important Practical Pointers and Pitfalls - J. Grant Ballard
Agricultural leases for Mid-South Farmers, Lenders, and Landlords - William C. Bridgforth, James Caiman, & J. Travis Baxter
Lunch (Included)
The Gulf Dead Zone and Gulf Restoration v. EPA: What it Means for Agriculture in the Mississippi River Basin - John Milner
Hot Topics in Invasive Species Management: Lacey Act Reform, Biofuels, and More - Stephanie Showalter Otts
Food Security: Technology and Ethics - Drew L. Kershen
Nuisance Lawsuits and Right-to-Farm Laws for Mid-South Agriculture and Aquaculture - Rusty Rumley

For those who register before May 9, the cost of the CLE is $270 for members of the Arkansas Bar Association and $340 for non-members. Lunch is included. For more information, please contact Rusty Rumley at rrumley@uark.edu.

Farm Bill

With passage and enactment of the latest Farm Bill, Center staff has been busy updating our Farm Bill Resources page. This page includes digitized versions of every farm bill ever passed, along with selected legislative history and links to additional resources.

Another area that includes Farm Bill resources is our collection of Congressional Research Service reports. Many reports, prepared in response to questions by members of Congress, are freely available on the NALC site, especially those related to agriculture or agricultural law. One recently posted report that might be useful for those interested in the Farm Bill is a comparison between the conference version and the original Senate- and House-passed versions. It is available here.

Current Projects

The Center has many interesting projects underway, some of which are briefly described below. If your organization is interested in partnering with the Center on a grant or other project, please email us at nataglaw@uark.edu.

Legal Guide for Direct Marketing of Aquaculture Products in Alabama. Funded by the USDA Southern Risk Management Education Center (SRMEC), this project focuses on the confusing, and at times contradictory, maze of federal, state, and local food safety, tax, and environmental laws that impact freshwater and marine species cultured in Alabama. The project will reach producers through publication of a legal guide, an in-person workshop, and webinars. The project is an outgrowth of the formal partnership between the National Sea Grant Law Center and the National Agricultural Law Center.

Managing Crop Residues to Reduce Particulate Matter Emissions. Under this interdisciplinary project, the Center will collaborate with researchers within the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service in addressing particulate matter emissions. The Center will leverage its national mission to compile and analyze current regulations and incentive approaches throughout the U.S. and help develop an analytical framework, including unbiased compilation of advantages/disadvantages of regulatory/incentive approaches, to aid decision makers and agencies to develop potential policy.

Digitized Biofuels Legislation Inventory. The Center continues to focus some of its research and information activities in the area of biofuels. Currently, the Center is updating a project in collaboration with the USDA Office of the Chief Economist, Office of Energy Policy and New Uses. The final form will be a comprehensive, digitized compilation of past and current federal and state laws relative to the role of agriculture in the nation's energy equation. In addition, the project will include publications and participation in national conferences.

Enhancing Rural Communities and Entrepreneurship Through Research and Outreach Addressing Legal and Regulatory Issues in Direct Marketing. Direct marketing of agricultural products continues to be very important, especially with respect to sustainability and the continued development of local and regional food systems. A key part of the Center's current work in this area is the development of state-specific legal guides for direct marketing of agricultural products, which is funded under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This project was a direct outgrowth on longstanding collaboration between the National Agricultural Law Center, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and MarketMaker�. More than a dozen guides have been published to date. To view them, visit the Center's website here.

Center-Sponsored Webinars

Farm & Ranch Leasing - Upcoming on March 13, 2014

On March 13, 2014 from 2:00-3:30 (EDT), the National Agricultural Law Center and the American Agricultural Law Association will co-sponsor a webinar titled,

Farm and Ranch Leases: Overview and Practical Negotiation Pointers. The program will be moderated by Senior Center Staff Attorney Rusty Rumley, and presenters will be Cari Rincker and Tiffany Dowell. The program will discuss three common types of leases - cash-rent, crop-share, and hybrid leases - but will also address other types of agricultural leases such as livestock-share, bull/stallion leases, farm equipment leases, grazing leases, hunting and other recreation-type leases. Other issues covered in the webinar include key provisions within each type of lease, lease termination, impact of federal farms programs and self-employment tax for social security purposes, and how to ascertain whether your client is getting a "fair price" under the lease. For more details, including registration, click here.

This webinar is offered free of charge as a membership benefit of the American Agricultural Law Association and, therefore, is available only to those who are members of AALA as of March 12, 2014.

Enforcing Animal Welfare Laws - Completed

Last October, the Center and the American Agricultural Law Association co-sponsored a webinar titled, Enforcing Animal Welfare Laws: Whose Job Is It Anyway? The focus of the program was the role that private citizens may play in the enforcement of animal welfare laws at farms, homes, and businesses. The webinar drew participants from a wide range of viewpoints, leading to a lively question and answer session! A recorded version of the webinar is available here.

Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) - Completed

In November, the Center sponsored another webinar discussing Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL. This webinar began with a synopsis of COOL, including its recent history and current status, and continued in a point/counterpoint format for a policy discussion on where the program will and should move in the future. This webinar featured J. Dudley Butler, former Administrator of the Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) and currently with the Farm and Ranch Law Group; and John Dillard, an associate with Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz P.C. and author of the "Ag in the Courtroom" blog. Mr. Butler and Mr. Dillard were very strong advocates for their perspectives, and webinar attendees were fortunate to learn about the legal status of the program from two men who are very much involved in the process. A recorded version of the webinar is available here.

Outreach

Center staff has given multiple presentations and interviews to a wide range of audiences over the past quarter. You can see some recent examples below. If you're interested in learning more about any of the topics below, or in having Center staff present at a conference or webinar you're sponsoring, please contact us at

nataglaw@uark.edu.

Interviews:

Right-to-farm statutes - RFDTV

The Lacey Act - RFDTV

In-person presentations:

Legal issues in direct marketing - AALA conference

Estate planning - Pocahontas, AR

The future of agricultural law - 14th Annual Agricultural Outlook and Policy Conference

Webinars:

Enforcement of animal welfare laws - American Meat Science Association

The Lacey Act - eXtension Virtual Aquaculture Workshop

Ag & Food Law Blog

During the Winter Quarter, more than 120 new articles were added to the Ag & Food Law Blog. Topics ranged from farm bill updates, GM labeling initiatives, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), and Country of Origin Labeling, as well as many others. Updated daily and archived, The Ag & Food Law Blog is a comprehensive news, research, and information resource on agricultural and food law for the nation's agricultural community. It is the result of a partnership between the National Agricultural Law Center and the American Agricultural Law Association, the only national association focused on the legal needs of the agricultural community.

The Ag & Food Law Blog is spearheaded by Center Research Consultant Emily Bridges. Emily graduated magna cum laude from Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. She graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law in May of 2008 and served as student editor for the Journal of Islamic Law & Culture and as a judicial extern for the Honorable David Clinger of the Arkansas Circuit Court, Nineteenth Judicial Circuit West, Division 2. Emily completed her LL.M. in Agricultural and Food Law from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 2012 and has served at the Center in different capacities in recent years.