Corporate Transparency Act Requires LLCs File with the Federal Government by the End of the Year
Have you heard of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)? This law became effective at the beginning of this year and requires registration with the federal government in addition to the paperwork LLCs and corporations file at the state or tribal level. Some are concerned about the law’s reach as entity owners will have to provide […]
Paying Workers with a 1099 is Common, but Is It Legal?
Anyone who has taken one of Farm Commons workshops or online courses on farm employment law can guess that most farms aren’t complying with all aspects of the law. Now, we have more information about the extent to which employees are misclassified, and it looks like 22% of businesses aren’t getting it right. This new […]
Buying More Time for Forms 1099
Late last year, the IRS announced another delay in a rule requiring cashless money transfer apps like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App to send tax documentation on user’s earnings. With the increasing use of these alternative payment systems at farmers\’ markets and online market places, farmers should prepare for the rule to take effect in […]
Spring into Legal Power Weeks
Boost the legal strength of your farm or ranch. Are legal risks, questions, fears, or confusion weighing you down? Whether you are a beginning farmer and rancher or more experienced, navigating farm law issues can be overwhelming and frustrating. Gain peace of mind and boost the legal strength of your farm or ranch through our […]
New Year, New Increase in Your Farmland Rental Rate?
As we turn the page to a new year, some of us are also turning the page to a new farmland rental rate. The wide majority of farmers in the United States operate under 1-year agreements, which means the rental rate is annually subject to negotiation. Since 2019 or so, that rate has gone up […]
Operating in the Dark: Bug Ranching and Regulations
We get a lot of questions at Farm Commons. But there is one question no one has asked us yet: How do I start a bug ranch? We have to believe it’s coming. Globally, nine species are currently farmed for food and feed. With the global market for edible insects valued at $0.5 billion for […]
Request for Proposals: Botanical Graphic Design
Invitation to Propose Farm Commons invites qualified professional graphic design and support companies or individual(s) to submit a proposal in accordance with this Request For Proposal (RFP). We request that proposals adhere to the format and content of this RFP. Farm Commons’ goal in issuing this RFP and receiving proposals is to enter into an […]
Forgot the Comma? That Will Cost You $10 Million.
Here at Farm Commons, we spend a fair amount of time trying to convince our agricultural community that business law isn’t a codebook of secret phrases that, when well-applied to a written agreement, can unlock nirvana or lay a minefield for one’s opposition. We work hard to convince folks that honest communication and authentic agreements […]
Fences: A Matter of Life and Death?
Fences. They seem so simple and benign. How can such a practical, seemingly neutral device lead to violence, threats, assault, and even death? Nothing seems to raise charged emotions quite like disputes around where property boundaries lie and what can be done at the edge. A number of recent cases show just how bad these […]
The Circles of Resilience
Welcome to Farm Commons’ inaugural Circle of Resilience program, where we are dreaming and shaping a peer-led, collaborative, proactive risk management future for agricultural communities around the United States. Not many farmers begin farming because they love creating risk management plans. In fact, most even dread it. From developing crop schedules and livestock rotations to […]
When Vulnerability and Lax Enforcement Combine in H-2A
As the use of H-2A visas continues to accelerate, the abuses and violations hidden within this program are receiving more light as well. Media outlets recently released investigative work on Idaho-based sheep farmers in slavery-like conditions, workers in North Carolina who died in after their dilapidated employer-provided housing broke out in flames, and Missouri workers […]
Rain, Rain Go Away: We only want to pick apples on Saturdays
Diversifying into agritourism is a time-tested strategy to generate additional revenue while hedging against downswings in agricultural product prices. But, farmers can’t easily insure against the risk of rainy weather keeping seasonal customers away. They can insure against price drops, which further reinforces the commodity structure of agriculture. Farmers in the northeast are forced to […]
Farm Commons: Request for Proposal Website Maintenance
Invitation to Propose Farm Commons invites qualified professional website design and support companies or individual(s) to submit a proposal in accordance with this Request For Proposal (RFP) for Website Maintenance Services for its organizational needs. We request that proposals adhere to the format and content of this RFP. Farm Commons’ goal in issuing this RFP […]
Year to Date: A Review of Selected Farm Labor Violations
Over the past six months, the Department of Justice charged farms nationwide with countless farm labor violations, and according to a 2020 article by The Counter, “70% of farm labor investigations end in violations.” But we are here to help you manage your risk and gain peace of mind. From knowing what breaks are required […]
Discrimination On Farm Leads to a Multi-Million Dollar Settlement
A Washington-based mushroom farm recently agreed to pay $3.4 million to settle discrimination claims against them. The farm had systematically rooted out a majority of their female domestic workforce and replaced them with male H-2A workers. The company’s tactics led to a civil rights lawsuit double-whammy: the Washington Attorney General filed a complaint against them […]
Open Farm Employment Law Week
You deserve easy-to-understand farm law solutions. Are you wondering if it is legal for your for-profit farm or ranch to have volunteers? Or maybe you want to know if you can pay your employees with housing, bacon, or broccoli. No matter what your farm employment law question is, you deserve easy-to-understand farm law solutions. Our […]
New Overtime Rules Bring More Complexity to Farm Labor Calculations
“Especially in California, with the labor laws, you can’t have pickers work more than eight hours a day,” a professional from a tech startup that builds flying robot apple harvesters recently quipped to Forbes magazine. Of course, this isn’t exactly true. Human workers can pick for more than eight hours a day in […]
Shopping for farm property insurance in California just got harder. Are other states next?
Last month, the insurance company State Farm announced it would no longer issue new property insurance policies for residential or commercial customers in California. This decision has immediate implications for California farmers, many of whom need real solutions for this season. It also portends future issues for farmers in getting the necessary insurance coverage to […]
Fishers diversify, face same business law complications as farmers, when disaster strikes
After drought conditions, record-low numbers of salmon are expected to return to California rivers to spawn this year, prompting the Pacific Fishery Management Council to cancel the 2023 season off the California coast. Now, an entire industry valued at $1.4 billion that supports 23,000 jobs is looking to other revenue streams. We explain how fishermen […]
How a Farmer’s Arrest for Selling Milk Inspired New Laws on the Practice of Medicine
Herb C. Saunders, a dairy farmer from Odin, Minnesota, was arrested in 1993 for three charges related to selling colostrum milk and herbs to customers, many of whom were sick and had sought out Herb\’s products in hopes it would improve their health. After three years and two hung juries, prosecutors dismissed all […]
Be a part of our Botanical Products Experience Team!
Share and learn about the legal aspects of creating teas, salves, and more Applications for 2023 are now closed. Do you own a business where you make and sell teas, salves, tinctures and other health/beauty aids from products you grow and forage yourself? Do you have thoughts, concerns, or questions about what rules and regulations […]
$123 Million in Additional Funds for Distressed Borrowers
The USDA announced that starting in April, it will provide $123 million in additional, automatic financial assistance to qualifying farm loan program borrowers. The Federation of Southern Cooperatives is lauding this move as responsive to advocacy efforts on behalf of Black farmers. The recently announced funds are an addition to the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) […]
Who Owns Our Farmland: Foreign Ownership Legislation Proliferates
Just this year, over half the states have introduced bills to restrict foreign ownership of agricultural land. These states are joining the approximately eighteen states that already have laws limiting foreign ownership in some way. It is true that between 2009 and 2019, foreign ownership of U.S. agricultural land doubled, and it has only continued […]
Solar Leasing Brings Complex Questions
Agricultural communities are wrestling with the implications of utility-scale solar as the tax incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act spur surging investment in solar projects that cover thousands of acres. If the federal goals for renewable energy are met, as many as 10 million acres of land will be converted to solar generation. The best […]
Family Farm Feud: Relatives Without Governance Document End Up in Court
This was no ordinary Southeast strawberry farm; start-up costs reached nearly nine million dollars, and the farm covered 250 acres. Successful even during the pandemic, locals swarmed to savor the farm store\’s ice cream after picking berries on a hot afternoon. Though still operational, the farm is no longer a family venture–that dream collapsed in […]
Leasing Farmland to the Highest Bidder? Examining the latest option from a legal angle.
Farm auctions are commonplace when it’s time to sell farm land or assets. But auctioning off the right to lease the farmland? This relatively new option is getting headlines for capturing high rental rates in an already heated market. The premise is pretty simple: farmers who want farmland can bid on the right to lease […]
Escaped Farmworkers Find Justice in Recent Conviction
Farmworkers forced to escape a Florida farm labor camp in 2017 have finally received some vindication. The owner of Los Villatoros Harvesting (LVH), LLC, a farm labor contractor, was recently sentenced to almost a decade in prison for abuse of H-2A workers between 2015-2017. The H-2A program is simply a visa program. If farm owners […]
Pennsylvania to Begin Enforcing New Hayride Regulations. Will Other States Jump on the Haywagon?
Hayrides aren’t all fun and games: Over nearly 20 years, 22 people (including 14 children) have been killed in hayride incidences with another 160 injured in accidents. With these attractions on the upswing in popularity, public policy is also trending towards increased regulation. Explore with us a newly-adopted Pennsylvania regulation and the ecosystem in which […]
California’s Agricultural Overtime Rate Reaches Small Farms
Starting January 1, 2023, California’s agricultural overtime rule came into effect for farms with 25 or fewer employees. As of the new year, these farms must pay hourly rates of 1.5 times the regular wage for all hours worked over 50 in the week. Reactions to the new overtime rule are mixed. The Sacramento Bee […]
Is it illegal for Farm Commons to write a guide that helps producers without documentation form LLCs?!
That’s the question Farm Commons is hoping to get answered later this year as we prepare to translate our popular Farmers’ Guide to Business Structures into Spanish in 2023. We would like to add information on whether and how farmers without documentation can secure the protections of an LLC or a corporation. But, we’re keenly […]
Tracing Spinach from Field to Plate: FDA Issues Traceability Rule
Is eating spinach risky? Per the FDA, it is risky enough to necessitate tracking the life of a bag of spinach from field to fork. Farmers and food distributors will be required to participate in data collection at several stages of production to allow the FDA to trace the origin of fresh produce in the […]
Farms and the Gig Economy
Farmers often save on payroll by hiring independent contractors. But, if a worker is legally an employee, that farmer could face penalties, fines, back pay, and back taxes for misclassifying their worker. The already complex law defining an independent contractor has recently grown more complicated as rules shift with the changes in administrations. […]
A New Cooperative Governance Resource!
When forming a business, governance documents usually take a back seat. Governance documents are bylaws and operating agreements that spell out decision-making, how members or owners exit the business, and conflict resolution. Only when problems arise do owners usually realize the value of a through governance document. There are many good resources for writing governance […]
Keyboard Warriors Learn Farmers are a Formidable Foe
Technology isn’t just impacting our ability to repair our equipment; it is also giving consumers a bullhorn platform for issuing opinions—good or bad—about products. False reviews blasted on social media can have steep consequences for businesses. A recent case in Minnesota illustrates it can have steep consequences for the reviewer, too. In this case, a […]
Farmers & Technology: A Long Fight for the Right to Repair
Farmers are an important voice in the international fight for the “right to repair.” Due to the increased computerization of everything from our microwaves to our cars, there’s a rising tide against “smart” technology that makes it near impossible for consumers to repair their tools without the help of the company that manufactured […]
Insurers As Regulators: A New Era in Food Safety?
For Food Safety Education Awareness month, we look at ways the liability insurance industry is making its mark on fresh produce food safety. We know regulators can influence farms to adopt specific practices. Now, we’re also seeing insurance companies mandate specific practices. The outcomes can be good or bad, and farmers need the tools to […]
Strategic or Suspect? BIPOC Farmer Debt Relief Gets Erased
Emergency debt relief for farmers of color promised in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) has been stalled since June 2021 and has now been entirely replaced with a race-neutral alternative in August’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This pathway avoids a mess of lawsuits but risks hollowing out the core objective of addressing past wrongs. […]
The Supreme Court Regulates the Regulators
The call to end “big government” got a boost from the Supreme Court this past June in the case West Virginia v. EPA. This case severely limits the tools EPA can use to control greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. In the future, the Court will likely apply the same reasoning to […]
Overtime for Range Workers: A New Frontier
Sheepherders are at the center of a labor law controversy in California that foreshadows the changing landscape of range work in the western US. Sheepherders are at the center of a labor law controversy in California that foreshadows the changing landscape of range work in the western US. Small sheep ranchers in California are now […]
Farm inspections by OSHA will now cover heat preparedness
Farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die from heat-related illnesses than other workers. Farmworkers are 20 times more likely to die from heat-related illnesses than other workers. For the first time, the federal government has given OSHA enforcement authority to try and address this disparity. This means that on days with heat advisories, OSHA […]
Elephants aren’t ‘persons’, but bees are fish; legal fictions run amok
Rights are often granted or taken away by courts based on the definition of a single word. A California court in May decided that the definition of fish can include bees, granting the latter endangered species protection Rights are often granted or taken away by courts based on the definition of a single word. A […]
What do we owe our neighbors?
Right-to-Farm bills aim to protect farms from non-farming neighbors intolerant of reasonable farm-related smells and noises. However, recent changes in some states’ Right-to-Farm legislation edge close to crossing a line towards protecting the rights of farms to pollute. Georgia just passed a stricter Right-to-Farm bill that re-ignites this debate. Georgia […]
Is California telling out-of-state farmers how to raise their hogs?
If citizens in one state pass restrictive livestock production rules, does that unfairly dictate to farmers in other states how they must raise their animals? We’re about to find out because the pork industry has brought a constitutional challenge against a California animal welfare law and the US Supreme Court has agreed to […]
The high cost of skipping lunch
Especially on harvest days, farmwork seems never to end, and time can be in short supply. Sometimes, farm owners can be tempted to skip rest periods or rush their workers through lunch. However, sixteen states require some level of meal or rest periods for agricultural workers, and it pays for farmers to […]
Farm Commons Welcomes Three New Staff and Appoints Eva Moss to Lead Educational Programming
(May 2022) Farm Commons is pleased to announce the addition of three new staff and one promotion to support the non-profit’s commitment to empowering agricultural communities to resolve their own legal vulnerabilities within an ecosystem of support. In December, Farm Commons promoted Eva Moss to Education Program Director and welcomed Bonita Croyle as the Communications […]
Two farms recently ordered to pay $240k for H-2A worker violations
Department of Labor has recently ordered two farms to pay a collective $240,674 in back wages and civil money penalties for H-2A worker violations. A potato farm in Bancroft, ID, took the bigger hit for intimidating workers after refusing to pay the required wage rates, not providing a sufficient percentage of the hours […]
Mistakes in cooperative structure can lead to severe consequences
The historic agricultural cooperative statute Capper-Volstead, now a century old, has recently enjoyed some rare time in legal news headlines. In January, a court found a Pennsylvania mushroom cooperative to be in violation of the Capper Volstead act because the cooperative did not consist solely of producer members and therefore could not legally set prices […]
Debating the meaning of “pure”
If you picked up a bottle of honey and saw “pure” on the label, would you assume that word means the honey is free of even trace levels of pesticide? This question is being asked in a class-action lawsuit under NY’s consumer protection laws, claiming that trace levels of glyphosate in Sioux Honey Association Cooperative\’s […]
Outlawing the short-handled hoe
Banning the el cortito (short-handled hoe) was part of the recently enacted Colorado Farmworker Bill of Rights. At first glance, this seems like an odd addition to any piece of legislation. How could such an innocuous garden tool be so dangerous as to be outlawed? There\’s actually a very rich […]
Texas farm fined $1.3 million for failing to pay overtime
A farm in Texas relied on agricultural exemption from overtime wage requirements and is now having to pay $1.3 million in back wages. Workers in the warehouse were never paid time and a half for hours worked over 40 hours a week. After an investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor determined that warehouse workers were […]