A comprehensive summary of today’s judicial, legislative, and regulatory developments in agriculture and food. Email important additions HERE.

JUDICIARY: Includes Urban agriculture, Zoning

In City of Columbiana v. Simpson, 2019-Ohio-4086, the appellant Richard G. Simpson, Sr. appealed from a lower court decision finding in favor of the City of Columbiana (the City) that the City’s ordinances prohibiting the keepings of chickens in a residential district were valid, and bore a rational relationship to the general welfare of the City’s residences. Prior to this lawsuit, Simpson had been keeping chickens on his property located within the City for seven years. However, in 2016 Simpson was informed that keeping chickens on his property was a zoning violation. Simpson argued that nothing in the City’s ordinances expressly prohibited chickens, while the City maintained that if an activity was banned in a zoning district, it was effectively prohibited regardless of whether a City ordinance expressly prohibited that activity. The trial court concluded that the City was correct, that reading the zoning ordinances together gave rise to a prohibition on the keeping of backyard chickens at Simpson’s property, and that such a prohibition was a valid exercise of the City’s police power. The appellate court agreed and upheld the trial court’s ruling.

REGULATORY: Includes EPA, NOAA

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

Final Rule establishing tolerances for residues of cyromazine in or on multiple commodities. Info here.

Final Rule establishing an emergency exemption under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, Rodenticide Act, authorizing a time-limited tolerance for residues of clothianidin in or on rice, grain. Info here.

Final Rule establishing tolerances for residues of chlorantraniliprole in or on palm oil. Info here.

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION

Temporary Rule exchanging the unused yellowfin sole quota for the rock sole acceptable biological catch reserves in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. Info here.

Temporary Rule prohibiting directed fishing for Pacific cod by catcher vessels less than 50 feet length overall using hook-and-line gear in the Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska. Info here.