There have been interesting developments in legal issues related to livestock production this year. In January a federal district judge ruled that manure (stored or applied to a field) could become a solid waste under federal environmental laws. At the same time, a consortium of environmental and animal welfare groups filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency for failure to act on their petition to regulate ammonia gas released from animal feeding operations. The law as it relates to these operations is currently in a state of flux.

Shannon Ferrell, associate professor of agricultural economics in the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics, will discuss the implications of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Clean Air Act on animal agriculture, recent litigation and other legal issues during a webinar at noon (EST) on Aug. 6.

This one-hour webinar is open to livestock producers, Extension educators, agricultural service professionals and anyone else interested in learning more about the potential impacts of RCRA and the CAA on livestock operations. The webinar is free to attend and registration is available at https://livestockrcrawebinar.eventbrite.com.

The webinar is sponsored by the University of Maryland’s Agriculture Law Education Initiative, University of Maryland Extension Poultry, University of Maryland Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics Crop Insurance Education Program, DAIReXNT, the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Center, Texas AgriLife Extension, the Northeast Extension Risk Management Education Center, the Southern Risk Management Education Center, and the Maryland State Bar Association Section on Agriculture Law.