Blog By: Camille Camp
In this blog, 2L Staffer Camille Camp discusses the threat black vultures pose to the livestock industry and the proposed bill aimed at assisting livestock producers. Additionally, she highlights the essential ecological function served by black vultures and stresses the importance of finding a sustainable solution that both addresses the threat to livestock and preserves the black vulture population.
Blog By: Daniel Martell
In his blog, Vol. 17 Executive Editor Daniel Martell reports on a barrier in the transition to clean energy: local opposition to solar projects in rural communities. While opposition groups have delayed and derailed solar projects in the past, Martell argues that there are steps that solar farm developers can take to the conflict and cost that come with public opposition to their energy projects.
Blog By: Daniel Short
2L Staffer Daniel Short discusses the Kentucky legislature's decision to create an acreage requirement for hunting and fishing licenses, exempt private landowners. Shortly after, the legislature rescinded the rule, which Short argues was the right decision because of the requirement's uncertainty in enforcement and effectiveness, as well as the detriment to resident outdoorsmen.
Blog By: Caroline Butler
In this blog, 3L Staffer Caroline Butler discusses a $320 million, 2,000-acre proposal to expand Bluegrass Station to include a military airport was made public. Butler argues that this proposal and the problems surrounding it, such as eminent domain and public pushback.
Blog By: Madison Boggs
In her blog, 2L Staffer Madison Boggs discusses the passage of the Whole Milk For Healthy Kids Act in the House of Representatives. The Act seeks to amend existing federal regulations governing school lunches, allowing schools to offer a broader range of milk choices to students, including whole, reduced-fat, and fat-free varieties. Boggs emphasizes the significant contribution of discarded milk in school cafeterias to food waste and advocates for expanding beverage options, including plant-based milks, in schools to tackle this widespread issue.
Child labor is alive in the United States. Almost a century after the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act was passed and despite numerous amendments, loopholes still remain that allow young children to work for excessive hours in dangerous environments with unfair compensation. The agricultural field, more precisely the tobacco industry, has benefited from child labor due to the shortcomings of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Liquor industry giant Sazerac Co. (Sazerac) has been involved in numerous trademark infringement lawsuits in recent years. For example, in September, Sazerac filed suit against Stout Brewing Company LCC claiming that Stout Brewing tried “to pass off its own product [Fire Flask] as Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey.” The companies settled the dispute on Sept. 22, and Stout Brewing agreed to “cease selling its product with infringing labels and redesign its label.
On July 21, 2015, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $349 million in funding to be used for the improvement of electric infrastructure in thirteen states. The funding for the projects is provided through the USDA Rural Development’s Electric Program. According to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the goal of the funding is to improve electric systems in rural communities in an effort to “build a sustainable and dynamic future for rural residents and businesses.
The local food movement is growing stronger and is expanding exponentially across the United States. Local Food sales topped $11.7 billion last year according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which has invested more than $800 million in more than 29,100 local and regional businesses and infrastructure projects. This investment is part of a federal initiative called “Local Foods, Local Places,” which invites communities to participate by providing direct technical support to build strong local food systems.[ii] Over 4,000 local and regional food businesses and projects – including food hubs, farm-to-school programs, and initiatives to expand health food access to low-income communities – can be pinpointed in every state across the country. Kentucky leads the nation in participation in this federally funded local food project.
With the continuing drought in California, the agricultural industry may be fearful of losing its top spot on the ERA’s list for the top agricultural producing state— worth roughly $46 billion and employing 1.7 million people. However, one particular crop may not be as threatened as the rest—California’s celebrated grapevine.
Dr. Dickson Despommier, professor of public health at Columbia University, created the concept of “vertical farming” back in 1999. Dr. Despommier and his students discovered that with a city, like New York, instead of looking towards flat land for food growth, the city should start looking up. Dr. Despommier and his class on medical ecology estimate that 30-story vertical farm towers could feed 50,000 people.
The recent upsurge in mass numbers of unexplained bee deaths has stirred debate over what could be causing these incidents around the globe. Some scientists now believe that a specific class of pesticides called neonicotinoids might be to blame. Last December, the European Union enacted a two-year ban on three types of neonicotinoid pesticides in response to the European Food Safety Authority’s report that stated that neonicotinoids pose “high acute risks” to pollinators, likes bees. The U.S. currently has no such ban in place. However, the EPA has expressed similar apprehension over the insecticide’s long-term effects, and certain U.S. cities are currently considering instituting local bans.
San Francisco, California recently became the first city in California to implement a new state law offering a tax break to urban individuals who use their property to grow food. This new state law allows residents to use their urban property to produce food and, in return, the assessed value of their property is lowered, thereby lowering their property tax.
After years of legislative consideration, the University of Kentucky (“UK”) recently harvested in mere minutes its first legal hemp crop under the Industrial Hemp Program. In September, UK yielded ten-foot stalks at Spindletop Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. The harvest marked Kentucky’s first legal hemp harvest in seventy years. UK planted the hemp in conjunction with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (“KDA”) under the Industrial Hemp Program (“Program”) established by the Federal Farm Bill.
