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Keywords

Food law, food policy

Document Type

Article

Abstract

From a fifth-generation wheat farmer on the Kansas plains to a cattle rancher in Montana to a beginning peach producer in Georgia, American agriculture produces, provides, and protects sources of food, fiber, fuel, and shelter. American agriculture, once solely supported by rural family farmers and steeped in an agrarian system, now relies heavily on industrialized operations, creating an arena ripe for the clash of diverse policy perspectives. As farmers produce the food enjoyed at dinner tables across the country, the inevitable impacts of agriculture production on the environment have led to policy and legal arguments surrounding the regulation of agriculture. Concerning the promulgation and implementation of regulatory measures, two unique perspectives color the majority of policy approaches. The first perspective focuses on protecting the interests of the agriculture industry by virtue of special treatment, exemptions, and exclusions, while the second perspective focuses on regulating harm from agricultural production through policy or law.

The guiding question of this Note considers how to best advocate for agricultural interests in the promulgation and enforcement of regulations that will inherently impact aspects of the agricultural industry. Part II, and the subsequent sections focus on agency oversight of the agriculture industry at the intersection of agricultural law, environmental regulations, and farmland ownership laws. Additionally, subsection E explores two applicable theories, agricultural exceptionalism and regulatory capture, underpinned with agrarian and industrialized views, considering certain sectors of agriculture. Part III studies the policy actions of several states concerning environmental regulation, right-to-farm statutes, and foreign ownership of U.S. farmland. After exploring the motivations for implementing each policy tool, Part IV dissects each tool in relation to the state’s action or inaction to offer examples of the approach’s alignment with agricultural values to determine the motivations for utilizing each tool. Finally, Part V offers a discussion of the concerns and alter- native solutions following implementation of each policy tool to offer the most collaborative, efficient, and effective actions a policy- maker may make when attempting to balance agricultural values with other values.

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