The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Oct. 10 overturned a 2013 U.S. Tax Court ruling that had been denounced as a dramatic reversal of a decades-long tax policy related to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). [Rollin J. Morehouse and Maureen B. Morehouse v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Case No. 13-3110]. In June 2013, the Tax Court ruled that payments received under the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) CRP were includable as taxable self-employment income for even non-farmer landowners. According to legal scholars, the Tax Court’s ruling was unprecedented and ... Read More
Arbitration
DC Court Rules Against Animal Ag in Ongoing Country-of-Origin Labeling Saga
In the latest development in the long story on regulations requiring disclosure of country-of-origin information for meat products – the federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 29, ruled against the meat industry in a lawsuit challenging the newest of those regulations. The law, regulations and challenges at issue in the case have a lengthy and twisted history. In the original 2002 law, Congress required country-of-origin labels on a variety of foods, including some meat products, and tasked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with implementing the ... Read More
Appeals Court Upholds FDA Decision on Feed Antibiotics
A U.S. appellate court on July 24 issued a split decision upholding the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) decision not to conduct hearings on a citizen’s petition challenging the safety of antimicrobial drugs used subtherapeutically in food-producing animals. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, N.Y., overturned previous district court rulings issued in response to a lawsuit filed by activist groups seeking to end the use of antibiotics in livestock feed. The lawsuit, intending to require FDA to conduct public hearings on a citizen’s petition ... Read More
Appeals Court Hears Arguments in CRP Tax Case
The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals recently heard oral arguments in a tax case that could set a precedent for absentee landowners with Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts. In addition, it could redefine tax treatment of cash rents, conservation easements and other types of passive income. The three-judge panel heard oral arguments in Morehouse v. Commissioner, which involves a non-farmer who inherited farmland in South Dakota, enrolled it in the CRP, and hired operators to manage the land. Originally, the U.S. Tax Court agreed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that CRP ... Read More
Updated NGFA Trade Rules and Arbitration Rules Booklet Now Available
A new booklet containing the latest version of NGFA’s trade rules and arbitration rules now is available. For more than 110 years, NGFA’s trade rules and arbitration rules have been used to facilitate efficient commerce and provide an timely, knowledgeable and cost-effective way to resolve disputes involving grain, feed, barge and barge freight, secondary rail freight, and certain transactions with railroads, said NGFA Vice President and General Counsel Charlie Delacruz. The new booklet incorporates changes adopted or ratified in April during NGFA’s annual convention which now are in ... Read More
NGFA Adopts Changes to NGFA Arbitration Rules and NGFA Trade Rules
NGFA’s general membership and the NGFA Board of Directors adopted several changes to the association’s Arbitration Rules and Trade Rules, during the annual convention. The first amendment, which was ratified by the membership during the annual business meeting, increases the cap in NGFA Rail Arbitration Rule 2(e) on claims for mandatory arbitration under the NGFA Rail Arbitration System from $200,000 to $400,000. The Board of Directors approved this amendment last year following the recommendation of the NGFA Rail Arbitration Rules Committee, which had considered numerous factors, ... Read More
State Courts Deny Claims by Non-Performing Grain Sellers Seeking Elevators’ Hedging Gains
In two recent lawsuits, state district courts in Iowa rejected claims by the sellers who failed to perform under a grain contract, and then sought the gains made by the elevator’s futures position. In both cases, the plaintiffs entered into contracts in 2008 to sell grain to elevators for future delivery. The elevator in each case then executed a corresponding futures position to protect itself from future price changes. The plaintiffs subsequently notified the elevators that they would not be delivering under the contracts. The plaintiffs then sought to recover gains made by the elevators ... Read More
National Grain and Feed Association
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