If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I am very involved with National Cattlemen’s Beef Association‘s (“NCBA”) Young Producers’ Council (“YPC”). I am YPC’s representative on NCBA’s Resolutions Committee and am currently working with the new YPC blog, Cattle Call. If you haven’t been following the blog, make sure you check it out here (you can also become …
Livestock Animal Cruelty Law Article
I recently wrote a livestock animal cruelty article addressing farm animal welfare issues in New York. The article discusses five defensive moves that New York livestock producers should make to help prevent criminal prosecution. Though the article is state specific, the article is informative to livestock producers all over the country. If you would like specific information on livestock animal …
Animal Law Student Writing Competition
As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I am a member of Committee on Animals and the Law (“CAL”) for the New York State Bar Association (“NYSBA”). Last spring, I was appointed as a member of the subcommittee for the Student Writing Competition. The subcommittee is pleased to announce the Third Annual Student Writing Competition. The deadline for submission is …
LLM in Agriculture and Food Law
The University of Arkansas, School of Law is now accepting applications for its Masters of Law (“LLM”) program in Agriculture and Food Law. If you are a 3L or an attorney who is interested in practicing agriculture law, I highly recommend the program. Through its scholarship program, there is an opportunity to work at the National Agriculture Law Center right …
A Handshake Just Won’t Cut It
Farmers and ranchers are constantly dealing with family, friends, and people that they have had a business relationship with for years and years. Because of these long-term relationships, it is easy for farmers and ranchers to trust the other party in this type of business transaction. It is not rare for farmers to make oral contracts with one another with …
Starting Agriculture Book Club
On yesterday’s post, I mentioned the idea of forming a book club in your community to discuss mainstream literature criticizing modern agriculture and discuss the misconceptions in the literature and how the agriculture community should address these misconceptions. For those of you who are interested in this, I am starting an agriculture book club that will read through these books …
Part IV: Debrief from NYFB Farm Animal Welfare Conference
The keynote speaker for the New York Farm Bureau farm animal welfare conference was David Martosko, the Director of Research for the Center for Consumer Freedom. I was extremely impressed by Martosko – he is a dynamic speaker who is understands the misrepresentations that animal groups make to the public. In particularly, Martosko criticized the Humane Society of the United …
Part III: Debrief from NYFB Farm Animal Welfare Conference
At the recent New York Farm Bureau (“NYFB”) Farm Animal Welfare Conference, Kay Johnson Smith from the Animal Agriculture Alliance was one of the keynote speakers. I was extremely impressed by her poise and presence. I love seeing such powerful, articulate women in the forefront of agriculture issues in Washington. The underlying theme of Ms. Smith’s talk was that those …
Part II: Debrief from NYFB Farm Animal Welfare Conference
At the New York Farm Bureau (“NYFB”) farm animal welfare conference, Mr. McNally and myself had the opportunity to address farm animal cruelty laws here in New York. I discussed the laws from a defense standpoint while Mr. McNally was knowledgeable from the prosecution side. My outline that was provided to conference attendees is available on JD Supra here. As …
Part I: Debrief From NYFB Farm Animal Welfare Conference
If you have been following my blog then you know that last Thursday I was a panelist for the New York Farm Bureau (“NYFB”) farm animal welfare conference in Albany titled “What Every Livestock Owner Needs to Know . . . A Positive Approach.” There was a great crew of speakers for the event including Patrick Hooker, the New York …
YPC Spotlight: Interview with YPC Chair Dustin Dean
As you know, I am very involved with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association‘s (“NCBA”) Young Producers’ Council (“YPC”). I was able to get our Chair, Dustin Dean, to answer a few questions for me about YPC. Dustin is from Texas and I have known him since my days at Texas A & M University (when he was attending that other Texas ag …