By Sarah Fielder
State Agriculture Leaders Urge Poultry Growers to be on Guard for Deadly Bird Flu The Maryland Department of Agriculture is calling for a renewed effort this winter by all poultry producers to intensify their biosecurity. During this time of year, migratory waterfowl moving through Maryland present a heightened risk for High Path Avian Influenza (HPAI)—a potentially devastating disease for poultry operations. To read the full press release go here: http://bit.ly/2A5BI2l
Mid-Shore Farm and Forestry Succession Workshop This workshop will be held on December 18, at the Caroline County Extension Office, 9194 Legion Road, Denton, Maryland, Cost: $10. To register online go to https://go.umd.edu/xdv and anyone with questions should call 410-479-4030.
Food Safety and Recall Readiness Workshop for CSA Operators The workshop will be on January 10, at Priapi Gardens, Cecilton, Maryland. To register online go to https://go.umd.edu/xdt, anyone with questions please contact Sarah Everhart, 410-458-2475.
Food Safety and Recall Readiness for On-Farm Market Operators On January 19 the workshop will be held at Butler’s Orchard, Germantown, Maryland. To register online go to https://go.umd.edu/xd9, anyone with questions please contact Sarah Everhart, 410-458-2475.
Food Safety and Recall Readiness for Agritourism Operators This workshop will be on January 25 at Forrest Hall Farm, Mechanicsville, Maryland. To register online go to https://go.umd.edu/xdy, anyone with questions please contact Sarah Everhart, 410-458-2475.
Top Legal Developments in Agriculture in 2017 Curious about the top legal developments in agriculture for 2017? This week Paul Goeringer and Tiffany Lashmet at Texas A&M University released a joint podcast episode covering those top developments. Many are repeats from 2016 and 2015, but a few new issues are on the list. The joint podcast episode is currently up on Tiffany’s Ag Law in the Field podcast and on the Maryland Risk Management Education podcast, http://bit.ly/2Bv0G7U. Past episodes of the Maryland Risk Management Education podcast are available here http://go.umd.edu/agpodcast.
Eleven States Petition Supreme Court on California’s Egg Rules Eleven states have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review California’s egg rules that ban the sale of eggs in California not raised under California’s standards. The states maintain that the law violates the U.S. Constitution. The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court decision that the states did not have standing to challenge the law. To read more about the appeal, click here http://bit.ly/2jm28m4.
Utah Agrees to Settle Ag Gag Law Dispute Utah has agreed to settle a dispute with groups over the state’s ag gag law. The settlement will pay the attorneys’ fees and court costs of the plaintiff groups totaling around $349,000. If approved by the federal district court, the settlement will need to be approved by the Utah legislature. To learn more about the settlement, click here http://bit.ly/2BGnhy8.
Estimating Tax Liability Using Stepped-Up Basis Fact Sheet Released Friends of this blog, Dr. Terry Griffin at Kansas State University and Tiffany Lashmet at Texas A&M University, have released a fact sheet through K-State’s AgManager.info website cover estimating tax liability using stepped-up basis. The fact sheet uses data from USDA-NASS to develop indexes of farmland values for each state. These indexes can help provide estimative tax liability in the 50 states. To look at the fact sheet, click here http://bit.ly/2j1Mvna.
Health Risks for Farm Workers Increase with Ag NPR highlighted a growing problem with farm workers. The average age of farm workers is increasing and the worker pool is not expanding. The story highlights that tighter border controls and other factors such as better paying jobs in construction and a growing middle class in Mexico have stopped many younger workers from migrating to the U.S. for jobs in agriculture. The story discusses many of the issues that are developing as this worker pool ages with limited access to health care coverage. To read the store, click here http://n.pr/2j1li3N.