I have been working on a contract management spreadsheet for a agri-business client of mine over the last month or so. I think this is a healthy exercise for all food and agri-businesses, no matter the size. It’s a nice way to understand who the company has contracts with, including Non-Disclosure/ Confidentiality Agreements with (potential) customers or employees/independent contractors. When …
Drafting Embryo Transfer Contracts for Livestock Producers
I will be speaking at the Texas Bar CLE Agriculture Law Conference on May 23-24, 2013 at Texas Tech University, School of Law on drafting embryo transfer contracts for livestock producers. I will also (very briefly) touch on artificial insemination, ultrasound, suggested sales terms from livestock breed associations, cloning, and a few other cutting edge topics affecting the seedstock livestock …
Picking the Right Management for Your Limited Liability Company
So you’ve decided to form a limited liability company — congrats on your new business venture. After filing the Articles of Organization with the Department of State and complying with any publication requirement, the next step is to draft the LLC’s operating agreement. In doing so, you must decide whether you want your limited liability company to be member-managed or …
What’s the Skinny on Limited Partnerships?
As I noted in this post, a limited partnership is choice of entity that could be utilized by a farm or agri-business. With limited partnerships, there are two classes of partners: (1) general partners and (2) limited partners. This differs from a general partnership in several ways. The general partners are really the ones “running the show” by controlling most …
Confidentiality Agreements for Your Farm or Agri-Business
I recently wrote an article on confidentiality agreements for the agriculture community. It can be found on my JD Supra page here. I understand that Non-Disclosure Agreements (“NDA’s”) lack the “excitement factor” but a misappropriate of confidential information can have deleterious effects on a farm or agri-business. I encourage my readers to gain a cursory understanding in confidentiality agreements and …
Questions Farmers Should Ask When Reading Farmers’ Market Rules
As noted in my last post, I have enjoyed reading Prof. Neil Hamilton’s publication titled “Farmers’ Markets: Rules, Regulations and Opportunities.” He includes a nice list of questions for farmers/vendors to ask themselves when reviewing the Market Rules for a particular farmers’ market which include: (1) Who sponsors the farmers’ market? (2) How long as the farmers’ market been established? …
Legal Issues Pertaining to Farmers Markets and its “Market Rules”
I had a chance recently to review Prof. Neil Hamilton’s publication titled “Farmers’ Markets: Rules, Regulations and Opportunities.” Though it was drafted nearly a decade ago, he does a nice job highlighting legal issues relevant to todays’ farmers markets. As Prof. Hamilton states, it’s important for the farmer to clearly understand the “Market Rules” (or “Statement of Rules”) for each …
Local Food Law CLE at Pace Law School Rescheduled for Spring
The Continuing Legal Education (“CLE”) seminar at Pace Law School giving a “Survey of Local Food Law” in New York has been rescheduled for Wednesday, March 13, 2013. It was originally scheduled for October 29th — the day Hurricane Sandy decided to pay a visit to the East Coast. I hope that you will plan to attend the adjourned spring …
Succession Planning for the Family Farm
A few months ago, Feedstuffs magazine published an interesting article by Rod Smith discussing the obstacles that young farmers face. It reminded me of the importance of succession planning for the family farm. “More than a third of U.S. farmers are 65 years old or older, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture” — a statistic that many of us …
Grow NYC Report on Greenmarket Farmers: “Farmers on the Edge”
Last month, I had an opportunity to visit with someone at Grow NYC (who runs Greenmarket), who shared this report with me (funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation): “Farmers on the Edge: An Assessment of Greenmarket Farmers’ Needs, and the Growing Challenges of Keeping Their Farms Viable.” I finally had an opportunity to review the report in detail. It …
Starting a Mobile Food Business?
I love entrepreneurs, especially food and agriculture entrepreneurs. I was reading this publication last week and enjoyed its discussion on mobile food businesses, which are taking off in metropolitan areas like New York City. Mobile food businesses are more than just food trucks– it can include mobile farmers markets, mobile grocery stores, and produce carts. Mobile food businesses have the …
NBI Webinar: Estate Planning for Farmers and Ranchers
The National Business Institute (“NBI”) will be having a substantive webinar on October 3, 2012 from 11:00am to 6:00pm ET (that’s no typo – it’s a 7 hour webinar…). It’s a little pricey for a webinar but if you are interested in this topic (like me) then I think it’ll be worthwhile. Topics for the webinar include the following: (1) …