CFAES Give Today
Farm Office

Ohio State University Extension

CFAES

Agricultural & Food Law Consortium

By: Evin Bachelor, Wednesday, March 20th, 2019

Agritourism continues to boom across the United States, with agritourism farms offering activities from apple picking to zip lining.  Literally A to Z.  Consumer interest in food and farming, along with an economic need to augment farm income through diversification, have combined to drive this boom.  As more farms delve into agritourism, their liability risks change.  Risk and liability are hard, if not impossible, to totally eliminate, but there are a number of steps that agritourism farms can take to reduce the chances of something bad happening.

Based upon the questions generated from our law bulletin on Ohio’s agritourism law, we wanted to take an in depth look at common legal issues and risks facing agritourism.  Created as part of a project for the Agricultural & Food Law Consortium, our new factsheet series does just that.  Specifically, these factsheets examine:

  • Legal risks of animal and human interactions
  • Selling food on the farm
  • Agritourism immunity laws across the country
  • Zoning laws across the country
  • Insurance coverage for agritourism

Each factsheet addresses common considerations and questions about starting and operating an agritourism farm, and provides links to helpful resources.  The factsheets are designed to have something for everyone in the industry.  From those just thinking about implementing agritourism who need to think about the basic risks, to those agritourism farms that are already well established and want a risk refresher.  Beyond the industry, those professionals who advise agritourism farms may find the considerations helpful.

Most of the new factsheets include a checklist.  The checklists include questions that an agritourism farmer should ask their attorney, zoning inspector, insurance provider, local health department, and more.  The checklists do not represent the only legal concerns that an agritourism farm must think about, but rather a starting point.  Every agritourism farm is unique, and must be treated as such when examining liability and risk.

The reducing legal risk in agritourism project is available on our website HERE, as well as the National Agricultural Law Center’s website HERE.  This material is based upon work supported by the National Agricultural Library, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

By: Caty Daniels, Friday, November 14th, 2014

Ohio State University Extension’s Agricultural and Resource Law Program is excited to announce a new partnership with a group of universities creating a new Agricultural and Food Law Consortium.  The Consortium is a national, multi-institutional collaboration designed to enhance and expand the development and delivery of authoritative, timely, and objective agricultural and food law research and information.

The Consortium will host its first webinar on Wednesday, November 19, from 2:30-3:30 (EST). The webinar, titled Mandatory GMO Labeling Laws: Overview and Status of Current Legal Issues, will focus on GMO labeling laws, proposals, and initiatives. Details about the webinar, including sign-on instructions, are available on the National Agricultural Law Center website at http://nationalaglawcenter.org/consortium/gmolabelingwebinar/. The program presenter will be Consortium member, Ross Pifer, Director of the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State Law. The program is designed for a broad audience that includes non-attorneys.

The Consortium is being led by the National Agricultural Law Center, which is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The OSUE Agricultural and Resource Law Program’s role in the consortium will be to conduct legal research, write articles, and produce outreach material. The consortium will allow us to collaborate on national and regional issues using our strengths to create bigger impact and will allow us to bring our expertise and Ohio’s issues to a national audience. Other universities making up the consortium include the National Sea Grant Law Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law and the Agricultural Law Resource and Reference Center at Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

Right now, an online survey is being conducted asking for input on agriculture and legal issues individuals are dealing with. This survey will help define the Consortium’s long-term research and information agenda. Everyone is asked to participate in the short, anonymous survey. The survey can be found at: http://nationalaglawcenter.org/consortium/.

Subscribe to RSS - Agricultural & Food Law Consortium