Welcome from the Director
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The new year has started off with a bang for us here at the Center and shows every indication of accelerating in the months ahead. As always, we are pleased to update you on some of the developments at the Center and look forward to serving the nation's agricultural community in the months and years ahead.
We have continued to expand the Center's content areas to reflect emerging trends in agricultural and food law as is evidenced by the additions of the Agricultural Leases and Forestry Reading Rooms and the enhanced focus on other legal issues of growing concern to the agricultural community. The now year-old U.S. Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog continues to expand in content and readership as the feature article below discusses. The Blog currently hosts over 2500 visitors/month and contains over 1,000 articles posted to over 50 agricultural and food law related topics.
To better inform our readers of Center activities, website and Blog postings, and news items of particular interest to the agricultural and food law community it serves, the Center has launched a Twitter page at http://twitter.com/NatAgLaw. This networking addition has already paid dividends by bringing in new visitors to the Center, its website and the Blog.
The Center continued during these two months to pursue extramural funds by submitting numerous grant proposals, a key focus that will continue for the foreseeable future. We are very grateful for the success we have had in this arena and remain optimistic about future opportunities as well.
As always, a special thanks is owed the Center's staff whose hard work and dedication are essential to the Center's operation and continued forward movement. Please do not hesitate to contact us if we can ever be of assistance, and thanks to all of you who have contacted us with questions and suggestions.
Best regards,
Center Director |
A Reading Room That Branches Out  The launching of the new Forestry Reading Room in early January was long overdue. Staff Attorney Rusty Rumley, along with assistance from numerous other Center employees, has compiled this new reading room dedicated to the legal issues confronting the forestry industry. Issues such as carbon sequestration, the Endangered Species Act, global warming, renewable energy, public lands, agri-tourism, taxation, and many more interact in various ways that affect forest owners.
The reading room provides information on many legal aspects of the forestry industry including an overview article, major federal and state statutes and regulations, links to important government and private websites, and access to forms and state websites on forestry as well as scholarly works concerning the various forestry topics. As with all of our Reading Rooms, we welcome any comments and suggestions on resources and research areas that could be pursued to enhance and supplement the information that is provided. |
Ag & Food Law Blog Celebrates First Birthday
While it has only been in existence for a year, the United States Agricultural & Food Law and Policy Blog has made great strides in providing its readers and followers with the most up-to-date information, from statutory law to case law, on agricultural and food law and policy. Since its launching in January 2009, the Blog has been cited by FarmPolicy, Huffington Post, Delta Farm Press and CNN and now hosts over 2500 visitors per month in addition to over 200 RSS subscribers. With over a thousand posts in its first year, the Blog aims to provide its readers with a comprehensive news, research, and information resource for the nation's agricultural and food communities. Although agriculture and food law is the driving theme of the Blog, posts have followed topics and issues from international negotiations on climate change to local and state statutes involving animal welfare. If it affects agriculture and food law and policy, then it is within the scope of the Blog.  The blog is provided as a partnership of the National Agricultural Law Center and the American Agricultural Law Association. The main author of the Blog's postings has been Noel Smith who came to the Center as Blog author and research assistant after working in Washington, D.C. as a senior policy analyst, speechwriter, and as personal staff to the House Agriculture Committee for Congressman Lincoln Davis (TN). Staff Attorney Shannon Mirus and Research Associate Paul Goeringer also write and edit Blog posts. |
New Reading Room - Agricultural Leases
The agriculture sector relies heavily on leases to fulfill different needs. Producers lease land to grow crops or raise livestock. Land can also be leased to use for agritourism activities, such as hunting and fishing. Producers can also lease their lands to mineral companies and to other companies to develop the resources found on their properties. The basic understanding of leasing laws is important to agricultural producers. The new Agricultural Leases Reading Room deals with the issues that face farmers when they lease their lands or are leasing additional farmlands. Research Associate Paul Goeringer worked to include all relevant information to help producers and attorneys better understand leasing laws. The room contains a comprehensive case law index on the area, with cases involving leasing disputes to requirements under federal grazing permits. An overview article on the subject is included in the reading room, along with a listing of and links to major statutes and regulations that currently affect the industry. The room also contains relevant Center publications and important materials from many government agencies, as well as other resources that will be helpful from both a legal and a practical standpoint. The room will eventually contain a leases database that will include a compilation of different leasing forms used in agriculture. |
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Staff Has Leadership Roles at Women in Ag Conference
 Several members of the Center staff participated at the 6th Annual Arkansas Women in Agriculture (ARWIA) Conference in Little Rock. Staff Attorney Shannon Mirus assisted in planning and hosting the conference as a member of their executive board, while Research Assistant Megan Cunningham introduced presenters and helped facilitate conference setup. The conference opened with the presentation of the Spirit of ARWIA Award to Senator Blanche Lincoln in honor of her work with women and agriculture. Staff Attorney Rusty Rumley presented Agricultural Contracts and the Leasing of Land to conference participants, and Staff Attorney Elizabeth Springsteen spoke on Farm Transition Planning. Research Associate Paul Goeringer gave a presentation on Arkansas's right-to-farm law. This year's conference was well attended and the presenters had a great time working and speaking with the participants. |
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Center Twitters at NatAgLaw
 With the growing importance of social networking, the National Agricultural Law Center is pleased to announce the launching of its own Twitter page at NatAgLaw. Twitter is a social networking site that allows users to send and read others' updates. Users can send updates on a variety of topics; however, Twitter is often used to update readers about news and events. The Twitter page will allow the Center to keep its followers apprised of new additions to the Center's website, blog postings, Center activities news items of particular interest to the agricultural and food law community. This social networking is already paying dividends for the Center and the Blog by bringing in new users to each of these sites. The page is accessible to the general public, even those without Twitter accounts. To view the Twitter page and to become a follower of the National Agricultural Law Center, click here. |
Making Legal Research Faster and Easier
Updates to the Case Law Indexes
Cases that were added to the Case Law Indexes in January and February.
Center Publications
Agricultural Law Bibliography Digitization Project
The last two months saw 155 newly digitized articles linked in Professor Drew Kershen's Agricultural Law Bibliography, bringing the total to 2,260 linked articles. To date, republication permission has been obtained from almost 1,350 authors and 155 journals, including newly digitized articles from the University of Illinois Law Review and the North Carolina Law Review. If you authored an article listed in the bibliography and have not yet been contacted about republication, please contact Research Assistant Megan Cunningham at cmegan@uark.edu or 479-387-2043. |
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