The recent upsurge in mass numbers of unexplained bee deaths has stirred debate over what could be causing these incidents around the globe. Some scientists now believe that a specific class of pesticides called neonicotinoids might be to blame. Last December, the European Union enacted a two-year ban on three types of neonicotinoid pesticides in response to the European Food Safety Authority’s report that stated that neonicotinoids pose “high acute risks” to pollinators, likes bees. The U.S. currently has no such ban in place. However, the EPA has expressed similar apprehension over the insecticide’s long-term effects, and certain U.S. cities are currently considering instituting local bans.
Putting More Green in Your Pocket and in the Ground
San Francisco, California recently became the first city in California to implement a new state law offering a tax break to urban individuals who use their property to grow food. This new state law allows residents to use their urban property to produce food and, in return, the assessed value of their property is lowered, thereby lowering their property tax.
UK Successfully Harvests First Legal Hemp Crop
After years of legislative consideration, the University of Kentucky (“UK”) recently harvested in mere minutes its first legal hemp crop under the Industrial Hemp Program. In September, UK yielded ten-foot stalks at Spindletop Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. The harvest marked Kentucky’s first legal hemp harvest in seventy years. UK planted the hemp in conjunction with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (“KDA”) under the Industrial Hemp Program (“Program”) established by the Federal Farm Bill.
How the Kentucky Grape and Wine Council’s Grants Promote Kentucky Wineries
With a seemingly Dionysian blessing, Kentucky has once again become a wine producing state. Prior to Prohibition, “Kentucky was the third largest grape and wine producing state in the nation.” Prohibition, which placed a cork in this production, deeply hurt Kentucky wineries with the resurgence of Kentucky wineries occurring only in the past two decades. “‘Ten years ago, Kentucky had only two or three wineries….” Now, over sixty wineries and vineyards thrive in Kentucky.
Coming to a Cornfield Near You: The Global Race to Precision Agriculture and Use of UAVs
The days of the horse-drawn plow are far behind us, and the age of precision agriculture is quickly taking over. By “collecting real-time data on weather, soil and air quality, crop maturity and even equipment and labor costs and availability” farmers can make predictive decisions about how to manage their crops. Scientists around the world believe that precision agriculture will be the solution to answering the world’s food production challenges that will inevitably arise as the global population increases.
Worker Safety Agency Squawks, USDA Balks
Kentucky Proposed ‘Ag Gag’ Bill Raises Concern
By: Alison Cox, Staff Member
A Senate committee in the Kentucky General Assembly recently approved a bill that would make it a crime to film farm operations on private property without the owner’s consent. The Senate Agriculture Committee attached this legislation to House Bill 222, a bill designed to set euthanasia standards for shelter animals.
The new language has created public policy concerns by animal rights activists, as well as questions of constitutionality. Kentucky State Representative Joni Jenkins said that the language added by the Senate committee made the bill “more complicated, and maybe even unconstitutional.”
The Kentucky Legislature won’t pass House Bill 222 easily due to high public scrutiny.
This new language would subject a person to a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $250 fine, for secretly recording farm operations on private property.
The bill, however, does not apply to law-enforcement officials and farming operations on public property.
The Humane Society has dubbed this bill the latest issue of “ag-gag” legislation.
The Human Society defines an “ag-gag” bill as any bill that seeks to criminalize whistle-blowing on factory farms, and as a result keep Americans in the dark about where their food is coming from.
Matt Dominguez of the Humane Society has said such bills, “go to show how much the industry has to hide.”
Not only will the bill potentially keep Americans in the dark, but it may also be a violation the First Amendment, as the bill is very much directed at restricting speech. The First Amendment does not free undercover investigators from civil or criminal liability, even if they ultimately produce an accurate video that serves the public good. But, this type of bill represents the broadest approach to “ag-gag” laws because these laws could potentially implicate a wide range of otherwise innocent activities and may face strong First Amendment challenges for overbreadth and government restraint of content of expression.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam vetoed a proposed “ag-gag” law after the Tennessee Attorney General called the bill “constitutionally suspect.”
The Tennessee bill was just one of fifteen so called “ag-gag” bills that were both introduced and defeated in 2013.
However, in February 2014, Idaho became the seventh state to pass “ag-gag” legislation into state law
. The Idaho legislation criminalizes unauthorized recording inside agricultural facilities, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5000 fine.
Though the Kentucky bill is controversial, the bill has found support. Kentucky Farm Bureau has supported the provision as a necessity to protect Kentucky farmers.
However, there are serious implications to public policy if farmers’ rights are protected in this way. The farmers may be able to be protected through other means.
The public policy concerns and the suspect constitutionality of the Kentucky provision seem to outweigh the argument of protecting the farmer’s rights, but the question remains as to whether Kentucky will join eleven states that failed to pass proposed “ag-gag” legislation in 2013 or whether it will join the likes of Idaho and pass the controversial legislation.
_________________
Cho Park, Critics: Kentucky Senators ‘Snuck’ ‘Ag-Gag’ Into Animal Rights Bill, ABCNews (Mar. 28, 2014),
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/critics-kentucky-senators-snuck-ag-gag-animal-rights/story?id=23098835
.
Id.
Jack Brammer & Janet Patton, Kentucky bill would prohibit filming of farm operations without owner’s consent, Kentucky.com (Mar. 25, 2014),
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/03/25/3160704/kentucky-bill-would-prohibit-filming.html
.
Id.
Park, supra note 1.
Anti-Whistleblower Bills Hide Factory-Farming Abuses from the Public, The Humane Society (Mar. 25, 2014),
.
Brammer & Patton, supra note 3.
Jessalee Landfried, Bound & Gagged: Potential First Amendment Challenges to "Ag-Gag" Laws, 23 Duke Envtl. L. & Pol'y F. 377, 395 (2013).
Taking Ag Gag to Court, Animal Legal Defense Fund,
http://aldf.org/cases-campaigns/features/taking-ag-gag-to-court/
(last visited Mar. 31, 2014).
Anti-Whistleblower Bills Hide Factory-Farming Abuses from the Public, The Humane Society (Mar. 25, 2014),
.
Ag-Gag Bills at the State Level, ASPCA,
(last visited Mar. 31, 2014).
Id.
Kentucky ‘Ag Gag’ Bill Targets Undercover Animal Investigation Videos On Farms, Huffington Post (Mar. 25, 2014, 5:59 PM),
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/25/kentucky-ag-gag_n_5030196.html
.
Id. (discussing the fifteen proposed ag-gag bills introduced in eleven states in 2013).
What’s Eating France’s Grapes?
By: Victoria Clontz, Articles Editor
What’s eating France’s grapes? Well, perhaps consuming is a better term and the answer is climate change. Last year, an international team of scientists estimated that by 2050, some of the world’s most famous wine-making regions will shrink by nearly 70 percent.
The grape vine is particularly sensitive to climate variability and change, like many crops.
But wine producers place much more importance on quality since temperature and precipitation affects alcohol, acidity, and color.
As the world continues to warm, conditions in some areas will sour.
Signature wines produced in some of the world’s most famous regions, such as Champagne or Bordeaux, will probably lose some of their quality and character.
As the heat rises, so does the resulting wine’s alcohol content.
A warmer growing season or longer hang time on the vine produces more sugar in the grapes.
The cool conditions of the Champagne region produce low-sugar, high acid grapes that are well suited for champagne.
So what does this mean for the lovers of fine French champagne? It means that the best sparkling wines may not come from its namesake region in the future.
“Given that most grapevines produce fruit for 25 to 50 years, grape-growers and wine-makers must consider the long term when determining what to plant, where to plant, and how to manage their vineyards,” says Antonio Busalacchi, climate scientist and wine expert at the University of Maryland.
The wine sector of France is now buying up land in places like southern England as it confronts the need to simultaneously reduce risks of yield losses and continue to produce the world’s leading wines.
In fact, English sparkling wines have recently been beating champagnes at international competitions.
The soil in locations like Dover is similar to the chalky soil of the Champagne region.
This transition for grape growers, specifically the relocation of wine-makers from the Champagne region, raises an interesting question given the restrictions placed on products bearing the Champagne name by the Appellation of Controlled Origin (AOC).
AOC rules dictate that only wines produced under certain conditions in the Champagne region may bear the product name champagne versus sparkling wine.
So what will happen when the climate becomes inhospitable to the grapes used to make champagne and the traditional houses leave the region? This issue is sure to become more hotly debated as temperatures continue to rise in France.
_________________
Grape Expectations
,
Science News
(Jan. 24, 2014, 2:50 PM),
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/grape-expectations?mode=magazine&context=187953
.
Lisa Palmer,
Vineyards Take Action as Climate Change Threatens Wine and Livelihood
,
The Guardian
(Oct. 3, 2013, 12:42 PM),
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/vineyards-climate-change-threat
.
Id.
Gaidso,
supra
note 1.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Palmer,
supra
note 2.
Id.
Georgi Kanchev,
British Wine Benefits as the Climate Changes
,
N.Y. Times
, Dec. 14, 2013, at B1
available at
.\.
Palmer,
supra
note 2.
Comité Champagne,
Recognition of the Champagne Appellation
,
http://www.champagne.fr/en/terroir-appellation/appellation/recognition-of-the-champagne-appellation
(last visited Mar. 17, 2014).
Id.