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Welcome from the Director
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the National Agricultural Law Center's bimonthly e-Newsletter. You have received this Newsletter because you are a member of the agricultural community that can benefit from the myriad agricultural and food law resources provided by the Center. If you do not wish to continue receiving this newsletter, you can easily unsubscribe at any time using the link provided below.
Critical issues and challenges face agriculture, and for two decades it has been an integral part of the Center's mission to make researching and understanding those issues and challenges as effortless as possible. Our user-friendly website at NationalAgLawCenter.org, the components of which are listed and linked on the lefthand side of this Newsletter, provides research and information on more than 30 areas of agricultural and food law. We're proud of the fact that the Center website is visited weekly by thousands of folks from across the United States and the world.
I would like to briefly mention some of the areas the Center will tackle in the weeks and months ahead. Special focus will be given to updating our Farm Bills page and the Reading Rooms to reflect changes brought through enactment of the 2007 Farm Bill. We will launch a new Reading Room that focuses comprehensively on "agriculture and energy," including biodiesel and ethanol, wind energy systems, and the public laws that support the use and development of agriculture-based energy. We will augment our resources on federal crop insurance with practitioner-oriented research and information. Special attention will also be devoted to enhancing the food law components of the Center website, especially with respect to legal and policy issues involving agricultural trade with China.
I hope that our Newsletter will help keep you informed of agricultural and food law developments and foster a dialogue regarding needed areas for research and information. If we can ever be of assistance to you or if you have suggestions on areas that need research and information, please feel free to contact us any time.
Best regards,
Center Director |
USDA Secretary Mike Johanns Visits Center
Secretary Praises Center As Vital to U.S. Agriculture
In April 2007, the Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Johanns, visited the Center, a visit that coincided with the Center's 20th anniversary. Following a luncheon with Center staff, students enrolled in the Graduate Program in Agricultural Law, and other invited guests, the Secretary delivered remarks to a standing room only audience in the Law School's Courtroom.
The Secretary spoke extensively on several aspects of the upcoming 2007 Farm Bill, significant challenges facing U.S. agriculture in the years ahead, and the role that the Center plays in enhancing U.S. agriculture. Secretary Johanns stated that, "The decision to create the Center, now more than twenty years ago, was certainly the right decision. As agriculture has evolved over the last quarter century, legal issues have gotten bigger and their impact has gotten broader. . . . Your work can bring predictability and equity in every day dealings in unchartered areas where agriculture is moving." |
Center Enhances Agritourism Efforts
In recent years, our staff has been asked to address legal issues involving agritourism through inquiries and invitations to speak publicly. The Agritourism Reading Room was constructed to aid the agritourism community, and the Center is currently adding to the content of the Room by compiling a comprehensive list of states' recreational use statutes and the judicial decisions associated with those statutes. We are also spearheading the formation of a National Agritourism Partnership comprised of people within state departments of agriculture or other governmental units that are charged with promoting agritourism in their state. The Partnership will serve as a virtual network of people that will provide input and advice to the Center regarding the legal and policy issues confronted by the agritourism community. | |
| Making Legal Research Faster and Easier
Case Law Indexes
The Center has received positive feedback in recent years regarding the case law summaries published on its web site. To better serve its visitors, we are compiling and adding Case Law Indexes to each Reading Room. The indexes are comprehensive annotations of reported and unreported court decisions pertinent to the subject area covered by each Reading Room. For those cases that have been summarized by the Center, links are provided to those summaries. The first index was published in July, followed by six more by the end of summer, with the remainder to be completed before the end of the year.
Farm Bill Digitization
In 2006, the Center digitized thirteen farm bills spanning 1933 through 1990 as part of a cooperative agreement with the USDA's National Agricultural Library(NAL). Prior to completion of this project, those laws were not freely available on the Internet, making our digitized farm bills one of the most widely used components of our website. In light of this heavy use and to make even more farm bill-related legislative materials freely available to the public, the Center is digitizing additional legislation and legislative history materials as part of another cooperative agreement with NAL. Website users can expect the newly digitized materials to be added to the Farm Bills page within the next month.
Coordination with the National Ag Risk Education Library
The National Ag Risk Library is a major component of USDA's Risk Management Education (RME) program that organizes thousands of risk management materials that help producers and agricultural professionals quickly locate information, tools, and assistance. The Center is coordinating with the Library to increase the amount of legal information provided by the Library.
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Staff Attorneys Focus on International Trade, Sustainability, and Local Food Systems
The primary focus for Erimar von der Osten is international agricultural law and trade, sustainability, food and water safety, and transnational knowledge initiatives. He examines legal implications associated with national and international mandatory and voluntary food safety standards, certification processes, and auditing throughout global food supply chains. He also examines emerging forms of global governance through social and environmental standard-setting.
The primary areas of research for Marne Coit are sustainable agriculture, local food systems, and other areas related to food law. In particular, she will be researching potential legal implications for farmers' markets, as well as the role that food policy councils can and will play in shaping the future of food policy. |
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Bulletin Board for Community Events
Our Community Events page gives members of the agricultural, agricultural law, and food law communities a great opportunity to spread the word about upcoming events that would be of interest to others in their community. All organizations are welcome to submit announcements for posting to the Community Events page and to include links to information, brochures, and registration materials. |
Recent Postings to Center Website
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