Agriculture Law Commons^™

Guide To Land Contracts: Agricultural Projects, International Senior Lawyers Project, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Agricultural investment contracts can be complex, with complicated provisions that are difficult to understand. This Guide provides explanations for a range of common provisions, and includes a Glossary of legal and technical terms. It assists non-lawyers in better understanding agricultural investment contracts, such as those available on the Open Land Contracts repository.

The Guide was prepared by International Senior Lawyers Project staff and volunteers in collaboration with the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment.

Transparency In Land-Based Investment: Key Questions And Next Steps, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Large-scale investments in agriculture and forestry are often shrouded in secrecy. In many cases, they are negotiated without the involvement of affected communities, approved through opaque decision-making procedures, and governed by legal agreements that are difficult both to access and to understand. This systemic lack of transparency impedes accountability and exacerbates ongoing disagreements about the real costs and benefits for investors, host countries, and their citizens.

Jointly authored by CCSI and the Open Contracting Partnership, this briefing note examines why contract disclosure and a contracting process that is open, accessible, and inclusive are important; what such transparency entails; and how …

Recommending Transparency In Land-Based Investment: A Summary Of Relevant Guidelines And Principles, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

An emerging consensus on the need for greater transparency in land-based investment is increasingly evident across various forums. This document consolidates recommendations regarding transparency featured in guidelines and principles published by international organizations, government agencies, and multilateral or multi-stakeholder groups. Viewed together, these recommendations offer insight on the evolving narrative on transparency in land-based investment, assist stakeholders in addressing the issue of transparency, and provide an informed starting point for further analysis.

Periodic Review In Natural Resource Contracts, Jacky Mandelbaum, Salli Anne Swartz, John Hauert

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Periodic contract review mechanisms, which are provisions in contracts that formally require parties to meet at particular intervals to review the terms of the contract, are mechanisms that may facilitate the process of negotiating contractual changes to accommodate changing circumstances over the term of extractive industries contracts. Through the review of existing extractive industries agreements, this article considers how such review mechanisms have been incorporated into existing contracts and the use of such mechanisms as a tool for maintaining good relationships between the parties. In addition, the article suggests a new approach to the drafting of these mechanisms by negotiating …

Land Deals And The Law: Grievances, Human Rights, And Investor Protections, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Lise Johnson, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Land-based investments can create significant grievances for local individuals or communities, and host governments seeking to address those grievances must navigate a complicated landscape of legal obligations and pragmatic considerations. This briefing note, funded by UK aid from the Department for International Development, focuses on practical solutions for governments confronting grievances that arise from large-scale investments in agricultural or forestry projects. It accompanies a more in depth report on similar issues, entitled "Land Deal Dilemmas: Grievances, Human rights, and Investor Protections."

The briefing note considers such solutions in the context of governments’ legal obligations, particularly those imposed by international investment …

One Quest For Eleven Distinct Wine Regions: How Implementing Mediation Would Benefit The Ava Creation Process, Jayme Lehman

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will address the petition process and its pitfalls and will provide a recommendation regarding changes that can be made in order to improve the system. Section II will first address the specific requirements that must be presented to the TTB when petitioning for a new or modified AVA. Section II will then discuss the options available to the TTB to address incoming petitions. Section III will examine the three areas of an AVA petition that can be the most problematic and will cite specific examples of those problem areas (with an emphasis on the Paso Robles petition). Section …

Ahead Of The Curve: Promoting Land Tenure Security In Sub-Saharan Africa To Protect The Environment, Andrew R. Falk

Seattle Journal for Social Justice

No abstract provided.

From Precision Agriculture To Market Manipulation: A New Frontier In The Legal Community, Neal Rasmussen

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Beware Of The Genetically Modified Crop: Applying Animal Liability Theory In Crop Contamination Litigation, Michael H. Carpenter Jr.

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

Genetically modified crops offer vast potential economic and social benefits to farmers and society, but also threaten the profits and harvests of conventional crop farmers through genetic crop contamination. On one hand, genetically modifled crops increase farming efficiency, decrease the cost offood, and provide solutions for global hunger. On the other hand, genetically modified crops may contaminate the crops of organic and conventional farmers through genetic drift, resulting in injury to both farmers and an apprehensive public. Litigation over crop contamination is an unsettled area of the law, even after four major crop contamination incidents. While courts have held that …

Community Supported Agriculture: How Do Maryland Operators Manage Legal Risks?, Paul Goeringer, Mayhah Suri

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

Protecting Kentucky's Honey Bees: What's Killing The Buzz, Why It Matters, And What We Can Do To Help, Christine M. Ficker

Kentucky Journal of Equine, Agriculture, & Natural Resources Law

No abstract provided.

A New Governance Recipe For Food Safety Regulation, Alexia Brunet Marks

Publications

Although food safety is a significant and increasing global health concern, international economic law does not adequately address today’s global food safety needs. While most countries rely on a collection of formalized legal rules to protect food safety, these rules too often fall short. As fiscal constraints impede raising the number of border inspections, formal international commitments (treaties) frequently limit governmental efforts to raise food safety standards. Private companies, meanwhile, can readily adopt higher standards to meet consumer demands and supply chain needs, thus demonstrating more nimbleness and flexibility in adopting the highest food safety standards available. Can countries learn …

2015 Federal Legislative Review, Alescia Dichmann

Animal Law Review

The American political newspaper, The Hill, named the 114th Congress as “the most diverse Congress ever set to take power.” This Congress has 108 female lawmakers, more than ever before, alongside 430 men as well as 46 African American and 33 Hispanic lawmakers. While this Congress has made strides in the diversity of its members, we have yet to see whether this Congress’s legislative activity will benefit animals. The fate of the proposed animal legislation discussed in this Review will ultimately be decided by the time this 114th Congress concludes in 2017.

2015 State Legislative Review, Malorie Sneed, Jessica Brockway

Animal Law Review

The past year’s state legislative sessions and court dockets bore witness to a wide variety of initiatives concerning animal welfare and animal issues more generally. The increasing prevalence of ag-gag bills continued in 2015, as Colorado attempted to pass a mandatory reporting bill and North Carolina passed its own ag-gag bill that applied to all businesses, not just agricultural facilities, over the governor’s veto. Animal welfare advocates had reason to celebrate this year, however, when the district court of Idaho overturned its ag-gag bill on constitutional grounds. Tennessee, in amending its “Good Samaritan” law to extend coverage to animals trapped …

Agroterrorism, Resilience, And Indoor Farming, Nathalie N. Prescott

Animal Law Review

Agroterrorism poses a significant threat to food supplies and the stability of agricultural markets. The industrialization of agricultural has substantially improved productivity and efficiency, but has also contributed to the sector’s declining resilience— the ability to withstand and adapt to stress and change. Consequently, agriculture has become increasingly vulnerable to possible agroterrorist attacks. However, by working to increase biodiversity and minimize the connected and concentrated nature of agricultural production, the industry can lower its vulnerability to attack. Indoor agriculture may be one way to accomplish this goal. This Article describes indoor agriculture, explains the concept of agroterrorism, and explores the …

Breaking The Silence: The Veterinarian’S Duty To Report, Martine Lachance

Animal Sentience

Animals, like children and disabled elders, are not only the subjects of abuse, but they are unable to report and protect themselves from it. Veterinarians, like human physicians, are often the ones to become aware of the abuse and the only ones in a position to report it when their human clients are unwilling to do so. This creates a conflict between professional confidentiality to the client and the duty to protect the victim and facilitate prosecution when the law has been broken. I accordingly recommend that veterinarian associations make reporting of abuse mandatory.

Financing Local Food Factories, Stephen R. Miller

Articles

No abstract provided.

Financing Local Food Factories, Stephen R. Miller

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Urban Commons As Property Experiment: Mapping Chicago's Farms And Gardens, Nate Ela

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Don't Be Cruel (Anymore): A Look At The Animal Cruelty Regimes Of The United States And Brazil With A Call For A New Animal Welfare Agency, David N. Cassuto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In the United States and around the world, animals exploited for human use suffer cruel and needless harm. The group bearing the brunt of this exploitation--agricultural animals--is routinely exempted from the largely ineffective and rarely enforced animal welfare and anti-cruelty regulations that exist today. This Article offers a comparative analysis of the agricultural animal welfare regimes of two countries with globally significant presence in the agriculture industry: the United States and Brazil. Even though the two countries approach agricultural animal welfare differently, they arrive at the same outcome: institutionalized indifference to animal suffering. To remedy the current regulatory structure, this …