Revisions to the Clean Water Act submitted in 2017 for more effective regulations of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) were denied this week by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The EPA denied the 2017 petition submitted by Food & Water Watch and dozens of co-petitioners, including the Center for Food Safety.
Continue Reading EPA denies water quality petition for CAFOs
The Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v EPA, announced on May 25, 2023, was unanimous in that the EPA’s wetlands regulatory jurisdiction is limited to wetlands with a continuous surface connection to the waters of the United States. And the Supreme Court decided that the EPA’s wetlands regulatory jurisdiction is
Continue Reading Sackett ruling should erase the existing Waters of the U. S. rule, cattlemen say
— OPINION —
Editor’s note: This is part of a series of papers written by students in the Food Safety Litigation class taught by Professors Bill Marler and Denis Stearns in the LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law.
By Brittany Rowe
Continue Reading New York dairy farm sued for discharging animal waste in violation of Clean Water Act
The U.S. Supreme Court is unanimous in finding in favor of an Idaho couple who’ve tangled with the EPA for years over interpretations of the federal Clean Water Act. The Justices did produce competing opinions in ruling for the couple.
The 5-to-4 majority opinion found that in Sackett v. EPA
Continue Reading Supreme Court finds EPA over-stepped its authority under Clean Water Act
April 5 is the date of the first hearing for the many parties involved in a federal court challenge to a final rule posted this past December from EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers defining the “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the 1972 Clean Water Act.
Private
Continue Reading First hearing set for challenge to new WOTUS rule by major private landowners
A letter sent Tuesday to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan urges him to unleash EPA’s powers on so-called “factory farms.” The letter is signed by 218 known and unknown groups.
The many groups want more federal oversight of the organizations USDA calls “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” or CAFOs. They
Continue Reading The pressure put on EPA over ‘factory farms’
Beginning next October, the Supreme Court session will have a food and agriculture theme going for it. The high court has already agreed to hear two blockbuster cases involving the Clean Water Act and California’s Proposition 12.
And while the National Corn Growers Association failed to get the court to
Continue Reading A food and agriculture theme emerging for next Supreme Court session
Rare as it is to get a case once before the U.S. Supreme Court, getting a return trip to the high court is almost unheard of, but that’s what Chantell and Mike Sackett of Priest Lake, ID, are getting. SCOTUS has granted their 46-page Writ of Certiorari.
Their petition, written
Continue Reading A rare second appearance before Supreme Court in Clean Water Act case
When the bitter cold began spreading over rural America last month, the parlor guessing game around many a wood stove was guessing who President-elect Donald J. Trump would name as secretary of agriculture. But the time for that game has passed.
The past three presidents all named their ag bosses
Continue Reading Secretary of Agriculture choice not as difficult as farm policy
Privacy was the winner in a Court of Appeals case a few days ago in the 8th U.S. Circuit with a unanimous ruling against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 
A three-judge panel ruled against EPA’s practice of collecting private information from farmers and ranchers and then turning it over to
Continue Reading Farmers and ranchers get their privacy back
