A year in review of the top agricultural law stories.
Agricultural Law Specialist Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, takes a look at the top ag law stories throughout this year. There was certainly no shortage of ag law news in 2020, she writes. Lashmet reviews some of the biggest ag law stories from the last 365 days.
Dicamba Controversy and Litigation
For cotton and soybean farmers, dicamba certainly has to the biggest issue of 2020. To hear more, listen to this podcast episode with Brigit Rollins.
The year started with
Bader v. Monsanto, the first trial in a slew of cases involving drift issues related to the dicamba tolerant cotton and soybean seeds and corresponding pesticides. The plaintiff, a peach farmer, filed suit against Monsanto and BASF for drift damage to his orchard in 2015-2016. He claimed Monsanto should be liable for “willful and negligent release of a defective crop system without an accompanying, EPA-approved dicamb
On December 12, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or the Agency) issued
draft guidance to clarify the application of the “functional equivalent” test created by the United States Supreme Court in
County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Foundation, 140 S. Ct. 1462 (2020). The guidance is intended to help both members of the regulated community and permitting authorities determine when a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit may be required for discharges from point sources that reach navigable waters through groundwater. Comments on the draft guidance are due 30 days after its publication in the
Federal Register.
In
Maui, the Supreme Court considered whether Section 402 of the Clean Water Act required an NPDES permit for the release of pollutants from a point source that reached jurisdictional waters after traveling through groundwater. 140 S. Ct. at 1468. The Court held that an NPDES permit would be required only when a discharge f