To say it has been a busy couple of weeks in the world of agricultural law would be an understatement. Here are some of the biggest stories in the news as of late. 

*McDonald’s files lawsuit against packers alleging price fixing.  McDonald’s has filed suit against the big four packers (Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef) alleging that these companies conspired to inflate beef prices.  McDonald’s Claims that from 2015 through the present time the packers have conspired to limit supply in order to inflate prices for beef. [Read Complaint here and article here.] 

*United States Supreme Court will hear dispute over nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas.  The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas and Interim Storage Partners, LLC v. Texas, consolidated cases involving a proposed nuclear waste storage site in Andrews County, Texas.  Lower courts ruled the facility could not go forward, but the NRC and Interim Storage Partners sought, and been granted, review from the Supreme Court. The legal issue in play is whether the government can license private entities to store nuclear waste away from the sites where the waste was generated.  The oral argument date has not been announced yet.  [Read article here.] 

*USDA continuing ERP 2022 payments under new methodology.  We are a little behind on this news, but we wanted to be sure we included it.  In August, the USDA announced it will resume payments under the ERP 2022 program.  You may recall from this prior blog post, a Texas federal court previously issued an injunction preventing the USDA from continuing to make payments using a formula giving a monetary advantage to “socially disadvantaged” producers. In light of this injunction, the USDA announced it will go forward with ERP 2022 payments but will not make the adjustments previously afforded to “socially disadvantaged producers.”  [See Notice here.] 

*US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismisses claim challenging CAFO permitting by EPA.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has dismissed the claims in Food & Water Watch v. EPA.  Here, a number of activist groups filed suit against the EPA after the agency’s denial of the groups’ request to initiate a rulemaking to modify regulations related to confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) discharges under the Clean Water Act.  The EPA denied the request, but did determine it would create a committee and initiate a study to investigate the issue and determine the efficacy of current regulations. The Petitioners sought judicial review.  The court dismissed the case, finding that the EPA did not act unreasonably in denying the petition as it took other action to determine if an issue existed.  [Read Order here and article here.] 

*Texas sues federal government over Endangered Species Act listing of dunes sagebrush lizard.  Texas has filed suit claiming the federal government violated the Administrative Procedures Act and the Endangered Species Act when it listed the dunes sagebrush lizard earlier this year. In particular, Texas claims the US Fish and Wildlife Service failed to rely on the best scientific and commercial data when listing the species, failed to adequately take into account voluntary conservation efforts in place, and that the rule is improperly vague.  [Read Complaint here and article here.] 

Upcoming Programs 

I am catching a quick, much needed breather over the next couple of weeks.  On October 23, I will be guest lecturing via zoom for Dr. Runyan’s animal science and industries class at Tarleton State University.  On October 20, I will be zooming in to speak at the Guadalupe County New Landowner Series.  To see my complete list of upcoming programs, click here.  

If you are an attorney interested in agricultural law, you need to be in Memphis November 6-9 for the American Agricultural Law Association Conference. I go every year and would love to meet any of you there.  For more information, click here.