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    Agriculture (Agri-Business)

 

  • Agri-business (or agribusiness) encompasses not only agricultural production on large-scale farms that perhaps may have hundreds of thousands of acres, using mass-production methods and cutting-edge technologies (such as drones for crop monitoring and spraying; irrigation – assuming the drones are equipped with hyperspectral, multispectral or thermal sensors, that can detect detrimental soil conditions and then either notify the farmer electronically or automatically activate buried sprinkling systems directly; health assessments through the detection of bacterial or fungal infections using both visible and near-infrared light; use thermal sensors to create data analytics regarding field and soil analysis; and perform automatic planting), but also any type of business which creates any type of product that enables or is related to any type of food production in any way (such as, agrichemical producers; agricultural equipment rentals; agritourism companies; animal breeding; animal feed producers; biofuel producers; cattle ranching; dairy farming; farm machinery manufacturers; farmer cooperatives; fish farming; food processing companies; fruit canning; grain elevators; honey production; marketing farm products; meat packing; orchards; poultry farming; processors; rabbit farming; retailers; seed producers; snail farming; warehousing; wholesalers; worm farming; and the like).

 

  • Not surprisingly, the three most-profitable large-scale cash crops per acre are (in descending order): cannabis (for marijuana, at about $193,000 per acre); coca (for cocaine, at about $153,000 per acre); and, papaver somniferum poppies (for opium, at about $25,000 per acre) – by way of contrast, the nearest profitable mainstream cash crop is tomatoes, at about only $6,000 per acre.

 

  • Representation for corporations, research institutions and startups engaged in agribusiness technology and biological products development, experimentation and promotion.

 

  • Serves as outside general counsel and secretary to agri-business enterprises, minority-owned business enterprises (MBEs), veteran-owned business enterprises (VBEs) and women-owned business enterprises (WBEs).

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to advertising law, such as: marketing agreements; promotional agreements.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to animal law, such as: concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs); equine law.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to banking and finance, such as: accounts receivable financing; asset securitization; asset-based lending; credit issues; debentures; equipment leasing; factoring; Federal and state farm rebate program issues; inventory financing; letters of credit (such as standby and direct pay); loans (both secured and unsecured); loan workouts; revolving lines of credit; security agreements; subordinated debt; hedging strategies commonly employed for agricultural commodities, such as swaps involving interest rates and agricultural commodities – such as grain, milk, livestock, natural gas or the like; term loan lending.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to business law, such as: business planning; customs issues; divestitures; entity selection; imports-exports; mergers and acquisitions (M&A); minority-owned business enterprise (MBE) issues; organizational planning; restructuring; strategic planning; strategic alliances; succession planning; veteran-owned business enterprise (VBE) issues; women-owned business enterprise (WBE) issues.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to contracts law, such as agreements for buying, collaboration, confidentiality, construction, cooperatives, development, distribution, distributorship, field-trials, franchising, licensing, logistics, offtake, procurement, product development, selling, supply chain, transloading, transportation (whether by air, barge, ship, train or, truck), Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to corporate law, such as: bylaws; corporate formation (such as C, S, LLC, LLP, partnership, sole proprietorship); corporate policies; corporate reorganizations; establishing a confidential hotline for reporting illegal and unethical corporate and employee behavior; grant administration and applications; joint ventures; letters of intent (LOIs); memoranda of understanding (MOUs); non-disclosure agreements (NDAs); not-for-profit law issues; registered agent services; regulatory compliance; shareholder issues.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to cyber law, such as: business process as a service (BPaaS); cloud service providers (CSPs); cloud security services (CSS); co-location; confidentiality agreements (CAs); data privacy agreements and audits; data security audits and agreements; information technology (IT) due diligence (and related transactions in the context of corporate acquisitions, divestitures and financing); information technology outsourcing (ITO); infrastructure as a service (IaaS); technology-related hardware and software agreements and contracts; maintenance as a service (MaaS); platform as a service (PaaS); security as a service (SecaaS); software as a service (SaaS).

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to disputes, such as: alternate dispute resolution (ADR); antitrust; appeals to the National Appeals Division (NAD) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); arbitration; bankruptcies and Section 363 sales; claims; collections; domestic and international litigation; litigation budget management; litigation management; mediation; nuisances; outside counsel management; subject matter expert (SME) management.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to employment and labor law, such as: collective bargaining; deferred compensation; employee handbooks; employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs); human resources issues; immigration issues; pension plans; profit sharing plans; qualified plans.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to energy law, such as: methane digesters; solar farms; wind farm turbine FERC certification; wind farms; wind leases.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to environmental law, such as: brownfields mitigations; drift spray; farmland preservation; manure management issues; odors; underground tank leakage and removal; water runoff issues (such as contamination from herbicides, manure, pesticides or the like); wetlands preservation.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to estate planning law, such as: charitable gifts; estate taxes; gift taxes; health care proxies (also known as medical powers of attorney); Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 1031 exchanges; IRC Section 2032A special use valuation planning; living wills; powers of attorney (PoAs); revocable living trusts (RLTs); wills.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to food law, such as: Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) Notices; food safety; labeling issues (such as claims of “all natural”, “hormone-free” or “non-GMO”).

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to intellectual property (IP) issues, such as: copyrights; inventions; material transfer agreements (MTAs); patent issues; research licenses; trade dress; trade secrets; trademarks.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to real estate law, such as: air rights easements; cell tower leases; community supported agriculture (CSA) agreements and associated membership agreements (MAs); Conservation Reserve Program (CRP); deeds of trust; fencing issues; foreclosure defense; foreclosures; grazing leases; ground easements; farm leases; land use; landlord-tenant issues (such as evictions pursuant to various occupancy and use leases); licenses; liens; mortgages; permitting; real estate agreements (such as development, purchase-sale); right-to-farm issues; underground easements; utility easements; water resource planning; zoning.

 

  • Performance of typical agri-business legal tasks related to insurance, risk management and surety law, such as: auto insurance; bonds; business interruption insurance; catastrophic insurance; commercial general liability insurance; crop insurance; excess insurance; farm insurance; flood insurance; guarantees; indemnifications; livestock price reinsurance agreement (LPRA); standard reinsurance agreement (SRA); warranties; workers' compensation insurance.

 

  • Compliance with Federal and state guidelines, laws and statutes – such as: the Agricultural Act of 2018 (Farm Act); Agricultural Assistance Act of 2003 (AAA); Agricultural Marketing Act (AMA); Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); Capper-Volstead Act (CVA); Clean Air Act (CAA); Clean Water Act (CWA); Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund); Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA); Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA); Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA); Endangered Species Act (ESA); Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAAA); Federal Crop Insurance Act (FCIA); Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA); Food and Drug Administration (FDA); Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA); Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA); Food Security Act (FSA); Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSAWPA); N.J. Stat. Ann. 4:20-1 to 4:20-32, N.J. Stat. Ann. 4:21-1 to 4:21-13, N.J. Stat. Ann. 48:12-46 to 48:12-48 (New Jersey Fencing and Relation Thereof to Damages by or to Animals);  New Jersey Global Warming Response Act; NJSA 4:22-16.1 – NJSA 4:22-60 (New Jersey Rules and regulations; standards for humane treatment of domestic livestock); NJSA 5:15-1 - NJSA 5:15-12 (New Jersey Equine Activities); New Jersey Right to Farm Act; Packers and Stockyard Act (PSA); Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA); Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA); Sarbanes-Oxley (SOx); Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) – as well as administrative guidelines and regulations issued by governmental agencies – such as: the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB); Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Environmental Protection Administration (EPA); Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); Farm Credit Administration (FCA); Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC); Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC); Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA); National Organic Program (NOP); Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA); United States Department of Agriculture (USDA); United States Department of Commerce (USDC).

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    Last updated 201206_2041

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