Neighbors and environmental groups in many states are filing complaints in local courts regarding odors emanating from dairy, cattle, poultry, and swine operations. The complaints frequently claim the animal operations or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) are creating public and private nuisances (odors) because the operations are run in a negligent fashion. The complaints seldom seek money damages in a specific effort to keep the CAFO operator's insurance company from…

Continue Reading

On Monday the United States Supreme Court handed down its opinion in the Bowman v. Monsanto Soybean case.  I wrote about this case on October 25, 2012, before I was retained to represent various commodity groups before the U.S. Supreme Court on the Bowman case. I stated at the time that "Bowman knowingly reproduced Monsanto's patented seeds to the tune of millions of times and profited without paying Monsanto for its intellectual property and hard work.  Bowman created…

Continue Reading

Lois Alt, a poultry producer in West Virginia, is challenging EPA for all of agriculture. Here is what's at stake. Alt believes that dust, feathers, fine particulate of dander and particulate from manure emitted through ventilation exhaust fans from her farm's poultry buildings landing on the ground and being exposed to rain runoff, is not a "process waste water" regulated by EPA requiring a NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit. EPA says she is…

Continue Reading

One year ago this month, I wrote "Animal agriculture may soon owe Feld Entertainment Inc., the parent company of Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus, a deep debt of gratitude" (April 23, 2012). Now, a win on attorneys' fees in U.S. District Court by Feld at the end of March, 2013, is enhancing that debt of gratitude. This case is an example of fighting back against groundless lawsuits. On March 29, 2013, a U.S. District Court judge found against the Animal…

Continue Reading

The Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences (VIMS), in cooperation with the United Nations, has issued a UN report on nutrient threats and benefits involving production agriculture. The 128-page report prepared by 50 experts is entitled "Our Nutrient World – The Challenge to Produce More Food and Energy with Less Pollution." The report suggests farmers must increase the efficiency of their use of nutrients by 2020 and reduce the annual use of nitrogen fertilizer by…

Continue Reading

According to Capital Press, several Washington State dairies have been sued for violation of environmental laws and the "…threatened fines that could total as much as $550 million and put the dairies out of business…" On February 14, 2013, lawyers from Seattle, Washington and the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C. charged the family dairies with polluting groundwater in the lower Yakima Valley. A review of the complaint filed by the Community…

Continue Reading

As the White House this week politicized the sequester cuts amounting to $85 billion in lower federal spending, a recent GAO (Government Accountability Office) study identified "more than 1,362 duplicative programs accounting for at least $364.5 billion in federal spending every single year…" claims Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., in a letter to the White House on Feb. 26 2013. Yet, little publicity has been generated in the media by the GAO report to Congress, called…

Continue Reading

People care deeply about their horses. The United States Congress cares about horses. There is emotional attachment to horses, but it should not blind well intentioned individuals as to why Congress decided it had made a mistake and took action to address the unintended consequences from cessation of slaughter of domestic horses. The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a report in June, 2011, entitled appropriately "Horse Welfare."  It is GAO-11-228 should you…

Continue Reading

On October 19, 2012, Valley Meat Company, LLC in New Mexico filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging that it is not complying with a congressional mandate which reinstituted funding in 2012 for inspection of the slaughter of horses. Valley Meat complains that USDA has "…altered its stance on this issue [horse slaughter inspection] due to political and special interest pressure, effectively allowing the issue to become politicized." (Valley may…

Continue Reading

EPA  issued a 307-page report this past September which claims four Washington State dairies produce "…a considerable amount of nitrogenous organic waste." (Manure to you and me.) The report generated a proposed EPA Administrative Order on Consent for the dairies to sign. EPA claims it has samples from residential drinking wells located in the area of the farms and has determined that nitrate from the manure "…poses an acute health…

Continue Reading