The H-2A program, designated for foreign agricultural workers, plays a notable role in facilitating labor-intensive farming across the United States, and specifically in North Carolina. The program addresses the issues related to the shortage of domestic labor in sectors of the farming industry, thus aiding in the upkeep of the agricultural sector as a whole…
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on September 20, 2023, issued a Federal Register Notice and Request for Information, signaling its regulatory interest in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) presence and use in its jurisdiction’s “consumer products”. This move suggests CPSC’s intention to join its counterparts – the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug…
News from the international trade sphere is shifting its gaze towards South America as chief negotiators from the Mercosur trade bloc and the European Union (EU) convened in Brasilia, Brazil earlier this month. The aim was to reopen discourses for achieving an inter-regional Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The decision to continue these talks follows the…
Stephen DeCosse has made his way back to Morrison & Foerster, rejoining as a partner with the corporate group in Tokyo. DeCosse previously worked with the firm as a corporate partner from 2001 to 2006, as mentioned in an announcement by the firm on Tuesday. DeCosse specialises in legal advice for private equity firms and…
The hacking group Anonymous has targeted and effectively disabled several Guatemalan government webpages in support of various indigenous-led demonstrations, as reported by Jurist. The affected sites include the judicial branch, the Department of Agriculture, the Prosecutor’s Office, and the General Secretary’s webpage. This digital onslaught saw some of the governmental webpages go offline for several…
In an increasingly eco-aware world, the food industry is witnessing significant developments. Cell-cultivated meat, in particular, is gaining ground as a viable alternative to more traditional animal agriculture. This emerging industry focuses on the production of sustainable, ethical meat cultivated from cells in a lab setting, with the aim of bypassing the ecologically impactful and…
As the legal confluence of corporate and agricultural sectors continues to present unique challenges, one issue has emerged as particularly salient: the increasing frequency of unauthorized persons entering farmland. This issue spans across a broad spectrum of unauthorized individuals and groups, from media news teams and environmental activists, to animal rights advocates and protesters. Reported…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed on September 29, 2023, intentions to register pesticide products with the newly identified active ingredient, ledprona. The proposal includes a trial period of three years, a typical timescale corresponding with the EPA’s strategy towards other newly introduced pesticide products. The fascinating attribute about ledprona, according to EPA, is…
In anticipation of the 2023 G20 Summit in Delhi, influential investor group, the Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR) Initiative, has urged G20 Finance Ministers to revamp agricultural subsidies. This reform, according to FAIRR, is crucial in assisting countries to fulfil their net-zero greenhouse gas emissions objectives by 2050. Concurrently, it is expected to…
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is reportedly reconsidering its current threshold for determining whether a substance qualifies as a nanomaterial. As it stands, a substance meets the criteria if it measures at or below 100 nanometers (nm). However, a recent development suggests that this classification benchmark could be up…
On Friday, October 6, 2023, in a significant legal development, Ultima Services Corporation, an influential participant in the administrative and technical support industry, filed a reply brief in the case, Ultima Services Corp. v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, et. al., Case No. 2:20-cv-00041. The reply brief continues to argue for an injunction against the award…
As the push towards sustainability and green energy continues, agricultural producers and rural small businesses are finding themselves the latest beneficiaries. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business-Cooperative Service is presently accepting applications for the Rural Energy for America Program (“REAP Program”). The REAP Program offers diverse financial assistance including grants, guaranteed loans, and combined…
A recent report reveals that over 5% of all employment lawsuits in the United States are filed in the Central District of California, a testament to it being a fundamentally litigious employment jurisdiction in the country. State and federal laws place a regulatory duty on employers to respect employees’ rights and to provide them with…
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently announced the next public meeting of its Precision Agriculture Connectivity Task Force, which is scheduled to convene on November 6, 2023. This comes as part of an ongoing initiative supporting a commitment of $1 billion earmarked for the deployment of wireless AgTech networks. More people are becoming aware…
On August 24, 2023, during World Water Week in Stockholm, the UAE Presidency of COP28 revealed its strategic focus named Water Agenda. It is an anticipation to the official 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, popularly known as COP28, scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 12, 2023, in Dubai. You can find…
As of September 29, 2023, the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Certify.gov portal for submitting 8(a) applications has reopened for both individually-owned and entity-owned applicants. The SBA had previously stopped accepting new applications for the 8(a) program while it devised a response to the injunction issued in the case of Ultima Services Corp. v. U.S. Dept….
On July 19, 2023, significant implications were made apparent on the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)’s 8(a) Business Development program. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in the Ultima Services Corp. v. U.S. Department of Agriculture case imposed an injunction on the SBA. It prevented the SBA from determining federal contractor…
Climate change protesters from various groups convened in Bern, Switzerland, on Saturday, urging for reforms to current climate change legislation ahead of an imminent national election. The demonstration saw an estimated crowd of over 60,000 concerned citizens, particularly alarmed about the intensifying impact of agriculture and fossil fuels on the environment. The demonstrators claimed that…
Republicans have proposed in the House of Representatives a new Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 (H.R. 4368). This act seeks to rescind changes set forth by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s January 2023 amendments pertaining to the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program. The contested…
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has issued fresh instructions on how the 8(a) Business Development Program should be used in light of the ongoing injunction in Ultima Services Corp. v. U.S. Department of Agriculture (No. 2:20-CV-00041-DCLC-CRW, 2023 WL 463348 – Eastern District of Tennessee, July 19, 2023). This case highlighted the SBA’s use of…
In a recent announcement, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission reported that the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust (“NWALT”) has designated a conservation easement in Crawford County, Arkansas, to encompass 580 acres. This information was made public as part of a news release, which detailed that the easement had been established in partnership with landowners Philip…
On September 8, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) unveiled a revision to the definition of ‘waters of the United States’ (WOTUS), signaling significant consequences for the jurisdictional scope of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The release, as published in the Federal Register (88 Fed. Reg. 61964 (Sept. 8,…
California’s environmental law and policy have undergone significant evolution, especially regarding the State Water Resources Control Board’s authority to investigate water rights. The novel Senate Bill 389 has been passed by the state legislators. The bill, which now awaits the approval of Governor Gavin Newsom, explicitly authorizes the Board to look into all assertions of…
Underlining the gravity of antitrust concerns in the United States, a group of 19 Democratic Attorney Generals (AGs) recently submitted a comment letter to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The letter strongly endorsed the agencies’ endeavors to reinforce the Merger Guidelines, which re dictated by federal antitrust law to…
In response to the landmark US Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers, have published a final rule effective as of September 8, 2023. This new directive, aptly referred to as the Sackett rule, provides a concrete definition of the term ‘waters of…