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Ways To Grow: New Directions For Agricultural Technology Policy Jan 2022

Ways To Grow: New Directions For Agricultural Technology Policy

Tech Policy Lab

This whitepaper, which grows out of interdisciplinary research at the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab, argues for a widening of the aperture with respect to contemporary technology policy in agriculture. Emerging technology could, as advertised, reduce costs and increase food production. But the industrial model of agriculture that technology currently supports—focused on faster, more, and cheaper— has its tradeoffs. Precision agriculture remakes the land to serve technology, introduces new sources of instability into agriculture, and contributes to the destabilization and vulnerability of the American food system. Greater resources should be allocated to “civic” agricultural approaches that transition away from …


Climate Change Has Beef With Federal Cattle Grazing, John David Janicek May 2021

Climate Change Has Beef With Federal Cattle Grazing, John David Janicek

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

Increased emissions of greenhouse gases are causing the Earth􏰂s climate to change producing extreme temperatures and dangerous conditions for mankind. Livestock is positioned at a unique juncture of the current and future fight against atmospheric temperature rise. These animals produce the very nutrients a growing world population needs to survive, and the meat they yield plays an important role in all world cultures. Unfortunately, the production of livestock is considered one of the most significant emitters of greenhouse gases, of which cattle is the largest contributor. Therefore, a balance must be struck between livestock production and preservation of the Earth. …


Hatching A Plan For Local Communities: Environmental Justice In Poultry Siting Decisions, Diana Stanley Jun 2020

Hatching A Plan For Local Communities: Environmental Justice In Poultry Siting Decisions, Diana Stanley

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

One of the implementation problems for environmental justice is reconciling the need to protect public health with the economic realities of struggling communities. This article explores that tension through the lens of siting decisions for large scale poultry operations in rural communities. Poultry siting decisions have major economic and environmental impacts and have been underdiscussed in the environmental justice literature. This article focuses on the role of law and policy in concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) siting— from community benefit agreements to Right to Farm legislation. It uses a Kansas CAFO siting and the wider Kansas experience as a case …


Corn, Cows, And Climate Change: How Federal Agricultural Subsidies Enable Factory Farming And Exacerbate U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Trevor J. Smith Mar 2019

Corn, Cows, And Climate Change: How Federal Agricultural Subsidies Enable Factory Farming And Exacerbate U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Trevor J. Smith

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

As people around the globe grapple with the realities of an ever-warming planet, Americans, too, are coping with some of the attendant consequences of climate change: severe droughts, storms, and wildfires to name just a few. In response, Americans are evaluating their personal and collective contributions to the climate crisis. Notwithstanding President Trump’s unilateral move in June 2017 to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the international community is pressing forward with comprehensive strategies to mitigate anthropogenic sources of atmospheric carbon. Despite their best efforts, however, most of these actions focus on the energy and transportation sectors while …


Much Ado About Something: The First Amendment And Mandatory Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods, Stephen Tan, Brian Epley Jun 2014

Much Ado About Something: The First Amendment And Mandatory Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods, Stephen Tan, Brian Epley

Washington Law Review

This Article evaluates the free speech implications of laws requiring that GE foods be labeled and concludes that such regulations would meet all First Amendment requirements for compelled commercial speech. Part I traces the history of food labeling in the United States, the advent of genetic engineering, and the application of that technology in agriculture and the food industry. Part II evaluates the scope of commercial free speech and the appropriate test to be applied in determining whether a GE food labeling law would violate the First Amendment. Part III examines the impacts of an agricultural and food system increasingly …


Much Ado About Something: The First Amendment And Mandatory Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods, Stephen Tan, Brian Epley Jun 2014

Much Ado About Something: The First Amendment And Mandatory Labeling Of Genetically Engineered Foods, Stephen Tan, Brian Epley

Washington Law Review

This Article evaluates the free speech implications of laws requiring that GE foods be labeled and concludes that such regulations would meet all First Amendment requirements for compelled commercial speech. Part I traces the history of food labeling in the United States, the advent of genetic engineering, and the application of that technology in agriculture and the food industry. Part II evaluates the scope of commercial free speech and the appropriate test to be applied in determining whether a GE food labeling law would violate the First Amendment. Part III examines the impacts of an agricultural and food system increasingly …


A Breath Of Fresh Air: Methods And Obstacles For Achieving Air Pollution Reduction In Washington Factory Farm Communities, Linda M. Thompson Jul 2011

A Breath Of Fresh Air: Methods And Obstacles For Achieving Air Pollution Reduction In Washington Factory Farm Communities, Linda M. Thompson

Washington Journal of Environmental Law & Policy

“Animal feeding operations (AFOs),” or, if large enough, “concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs),” have become increasingly concentrated in ownership, location, and quantity of animals since the 1950s. The Yakima Valley of central Washington is one area that has been subject to an influx of these industrial farms, raising health and environmental concerns for residents. Despite scientific evidence of potential harm, citizens have had difficulty enforcing air emissions regulation. The problem is twofold: the EPA is still working with the industry to develop a methodology for emission monitoring––the effectiveness of which remains unclear––and, assuming monitoring methods existed, the statutory framework provides …


Legal Liability, Intellectual Property And Genetically Modified Crops: Their Impact On World Agriculture, Kanchana Kariyawasam Jul 2010

Legal Liability, Intellectual Property And Genetically Modified Crops: Their Impact On World Agriculture, Kanchana Kariyawasam

Washington International Law Journal

The use of genetic engineering and biotechnology in agriculture has attracted worldwide attention over the past decade. This technology has raised highly controversial issues and considerable international debate over the liabilities associated with crops containing genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”). In particular, the extension of intellectual property protection to GMOs, especially genetically modified crops, has produced one of the most controversial and strenuous debates of recent times. After looking briefly at some of the key features, advantages and disadvantages of GM crops, this paper outlines the debate over the associated legal liability issues. This article also examines the major elements of …


Certain Opinions Of The Central Committee Of The Chinese Communist Party [And The] State Council On Promoting The Stable Development Of Agriculture And Continuing To Increase Farmers' Income In 2009, Tobias Damm-Luhr Jan 2010

Certain Opinions Of The Central Committee Of The Chinese Communist Party [And The] State Council On Promoting The Stable Development Of Agriculture And Continuing To Increase Farmers' Income In 2009, Tobias Damm-Luhr

Washington International Law Journal

The following is a translation of Certain Opinions of the State Council [and the] Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (“CCP”) on Promoting the Stable Development of Agriculture and Continuing to Increase Farmers’ Incomes in 2009 (“2009 No. 1 Document”), which the CPC Central Committee and the State Council promulgated on December 31, 2008, and made public on February 2, 2009. It calls on “every region and every department” to seriously study the blueprint created by the Third Plenary Session of the CPC’s 17th Central Committee, namely the Decision on Certain Issues Concerning the Advancement of Rural Reform and …


A Current Review Of Chinese Land-Use Law And Policy: A "Breakthrough" In Rural Reform?, Robin Dean, Tobias Damm-Luhr Jan 2010

A Current Review Of Chinese Land-Use Law And Policy: A "Breakthrough" In Rural Reform?, Robin Dean, Tobias Damm-Luhr

Washington International Law Journal

Three decades ago, China moved from a communal system of farming to a system that granted more extensive land-use rights to individual households, starting rural China on a path to greater prosperity. Today, however, the law and policy promulgated by the Chinese government prevents farmers from fully realizing this prosperity. The Land Administration Law gives farmers thirty-year contractual rights to the land they farm and the Law on Rural Land Contracting strengthens this right by more specifically enumerating requirements for land contracting and the transfer of contractual rights. Nevertheless, the rural-urban gap is the worst it has been in decades …


Implementation Of 30-Year Land Use Rights For Farmers Under China's 1998 Land Management Law: An Analysis And Recommendations Based On A 17 Province Survey, Roy Prosterman, Brian Schwarzwalder, Ye Jianping Sep 2000

Implementation Of 30-Year Land Use Rights For Farmers Under China's 1998 Land Management Law: An Analysis And Recommendations Based On A 17 Province Survey, Roy Prosterman, Brian Schwarzwalder, Ye Jianping

Washington International Law Journal

Recent legal and policy measures demonstrate the commitment of China's central leadership to the development and implementation of a legal framework providing long-term, secure land tenure to its nearly 800 million farmers. The results of a 17 province, 1,621 household survey conducted in August 1999 show that considerable progress has already been made toward this goal. However, a number of key issues related to both the implementation of existing legal rules and the development of additional legislation addressing rural land rights must be addressed for the process to be complete.


Choosing A Mechanism For Land Redistribution In The Philippines, Andre Sawchenko Sep 2000

Choosing A Mechanism For Land Redistribution In The Philippines, Andre Sawchenko

Washington International Law Journal

The Philippines' Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program needs changes because it is not efficiently achieving social justice for the rural poor in the present, nor is it establishing a framework for equitable economic growth in the future. A land reform program in the Philippines can accomplish its objectives only to the extent that it redistributes land. Market assisted land reform, the recently developed land reform model being championed by the World Bank, provides little hope for the quick and extensive redistribution of land needed in the Philippines. The best way for the Philippine government to modify its land reform program is …


Mad Cows, Offended Emus, And Old Eggs: Perishable Product Disparagement Laws And Free Speech, Lisa Dobson Gould Oct 1998

Mad Cows, Offended Emus, And Old Eggs: Perishable Product Disparagement Laws And Free Speech, Lisa Dobson Gould

Washington Law Review

In the wake of the 1989 controversy over Alar use on apples, several states enacted laws providing a civil cause of action to producers damaged by false statements disparaging the safety of their perishable food products. Commentators have suggested that these laws are unconstitutional and contrary to the First Amendment's free speech protections. This Comment argues that the majority of state laws either meet or exceed the constitutional protections established by the U.S. Supreme Court's defamation cases. However, these laws are unlikely to be used widely in the future because of their stringent proof requirements and because such suits often …


A Lesson In Ingenuity: Chinese Farmers, The State, And The Reclamation Of Farmland For Most Any Use, Kari Madrene Larson Jul 1998

A Lesson In Ingenuity: Chinese Farmers, The State, And The Reclamation Of Farmland For Most Any Use, Kari Madrene Larson

Washington International Law Journal

Since 1978, China has achieved significant improvements in the rural sector through the adoption of the baogan daohu system, which effectively dismantled the communal farming system and created individual family farms. However, meaningful measures must be taken to ensure that farmers have continued use of their farmland and that illegal land reclamation by local govermnents is halted. Because farmers' rights are not clearly articulated and cannot be readily enforced, local governments appear to be beyond central government control. Furthermore, due to the state's right to reclaim land under any logic, farmers' rights may ultimately be nonexistent. Though developing a meaningful …


Special Estate Tax Valuation Of Farmland And The Emergence Of A Landholding Elite Class, Roland L. Hjorth Oct 1978

Special Estate Tax Valuation Of Farmland And The Emergence Of A Landholding Elite Class, Roland L. Hjorth

Washington Law Review

Examines Internal Revenue Code provisions on farmland as an inheritable asset, including those provisions that offer substantial tax savings.


Racial Discrimination In Usda Programs In The South: A Problem In Assuring The Integrity Of The Welfare State, M. John Bundy, Allen D. Evans Jun 1970

Racial Discrimination In Usda Programs In The South: A Problem In Assuring The Integrity Of The Welfare State, M. John Bundy, Allen D. Evans

Washington Law Review

Allowing the rural poor to stay on the land and to better their lives would be one significant contribution to alleviating the problems of the urban ghetto. Yet, at least as regards the southern black farmer and his family, the federal government has not only allowed its welfare farm programs to fail in wholesale fashion, but has acquiesced in and even affirmatively contributed to that failure. This comment offers some empirical data on rural southern life and describes three representative U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and their failures at the local level with regard to the black farmer and his …


Compensatioon For Condemnation Of Land Enhanced In Value By Agricultural Allotment, Anon Jun 1966

Compensatioon For Condemnation Of Land Enhanced In Value By Agricultural Allotment, Anon

Washington Law Review

Defendant's farm, including 550 acres devoted to production of cotton under an acreage allotment from the Department of Agriculture, was condemned by the federal government for an irrigation project. Defendant retained the right under section 1378 (a) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act to transfer its cotton quota to other property under its ownership, and did so. Trial before a jury resulted in an award to defendant based on the value of its property as a cotton farm, less the value of the section 1378 right retained. The government objected on the ground that the enhanced value to the land resulting …


The Common Agricultural Policy: Crisis In The Common Market, Roland L. Hjorth Oct 1965

The Common Agricultural Policy: Crisis In The Common Market, Roland L. Hjorth

Washington Law Review

The future of this common agricultural policy, as well as that of the European Economic Community itself, however, has been made somewhat uncertain by France's decree, on July 1, 1965, of a "temporary boycott" of the meetings of the Council of Ministers of the Community due to a failure to agree upon the method of financing the Community's agricultural policy. This boycott may well have "triggered the most serious crisis in the bloc's seven year history," because the dispute is thought by some to be a mere symptom of a more fundamental conflict between France and her Common Market partners. …