By Sarah Fielder
Maryland Risk Management Education Blog Celebrates 4 Years This week this site is celebrating 4 years of providing you with information related to the law, crop insurance, and other risk management issues. Thank you to all the readers who have made this site a success and hopefully sustain us into the future.
NAFTA Deadline Was Thursday This week House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a deadline to finalize NAFTA as May 17th. The deadline has to do with giving Congress time to finalize the new deal before the end of the 115th Congress ends on Jan. 3, 2019. To read more about the deadline issued by the Speaker, click here http://bit.ly/2k0s7Qa.
House Debates Farm Bill This Week The House debated their version of the farm bill this week. The House is considering multiple amendments to the bill with a few that could end chances of passing the bill. To learn more about the debate, click here http://bit.ly/2k4qW2e.
Senate Version of the Farm Bill Coming The Senate is preparing to finalize their version of the farm bill by June. The Senate version looks to be bipartisan where the House saw Democrats and Republicans stop negotiating and the Republicans going forward with a version of the bill that saw no Democratic support in the committee. To learn more about the Senate process, click here https://reut.rs/2k0ZjqF.
Upcoming Webinar Series Kicks Off With Dicamba Webinar More growers will be using dicamba-resistant technology in the 2018 crop year. In past years, other regions have seen increased complaints as growers have increased the use of dicamba-resistant technology. The Ag Law Education Initiative will kick off a series of webinars with a webinar focused on an overview of current issues with the dicamba-resistant technology and new dicamba formulations. This webinar will discuss drift liability and the ongoing lawsuits against biotechnology companies for bringing this technology to market. You can register for this webinar and see the others in the series here https://go.umd.edu/2018AgLawWebinars.
Legislation Introduced to Reauthorize Farm Program for Veterans and Socially Disadvantaged in Ag This week Senator Chris Van Hollen introduced legislation to reauthorize the Outreach to Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers Program. This program provides assistance to farmers looking to get into agriculture. To learn more about the reauthorization, click here http://bit.ly/2k5raWK.
Producers Can Now File Claims in the Syngenta Corn Settlement Producers who grew corn in the crop years 2013 to 2018 may be eligible to file a claim in the Syngenta Corn Settlement. A corn grower or eligible landlords can go to http://cornseedsettlement.com/ to begin filing a claim. To learn more about the claims process click here, http://bit.ly/2FRTogU.