Legal Planning for Specialty Crop Producers

Penn State Law’s Center for Agricultural and Shale Law is conducting an educational series of workshops and webinars during 2022, covering the prevention and planning necessary to best avoid contractual, tort, and regulatory liabilities in conducting income-increasing activities.

Legal Planning for Specialty Crop Producers: Understanding Liability Protections, Regulatory Processes, and Other Legal Risks is a multi-part 2022 educational series to assist Pennsylvania specialty crop producers in successfully growing wholesale sales revenue with income from direct sales, pick-your-own, value-added commodity processing, or agritourism, agritainment & educational activities. Registrants who attend one or more webinar sessions will receive a complimentary copy of the curriculum when the series is concluded.

Visit the Center for Agricultural and Shale Law website for more details.

How to Register

For your convenience, we have created a single registration page for all webinar sessions in this series. Upon registration, you will receive a personalized Zoom link and will automatically receive reminders for each webinar in the series. You may opt-out of email notifications at any time. These webinars will be recorded and made available for viewing to producers who register for the series at any time.

Series Registration

Schedule

Topic #1: Legal Liability Risks from Business Invitees on the Farm

Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2022, 12:00 p.m., via Zoom.

This topic will examine the ways in which legal liability can arise from the care, custody, and control of real estate upon which visitors are invited for the purpose of doing business with a specialty crop producer, as well as liability insurance coverage, waivers, etc.

Topic #2: Legal Liabilities in Selling Raw and Processed Specialty Crop Products

Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2022, 12:00 p.m., via Zoom.

This topic will educate producers on the various theories of contractual, warranty, and common law legal liabilities, including “products liability,” that can arise from the production and sale of both raw agricultural products and value-added processed products, as well as how insurance may protect against such claims.

Topic #3: Business Structures for Operational Resilience and Liability Avoidance

Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022, 12:00 p.m., via Zoom.

This topic will review the various forms of business entity structures that may be employed by specialty crop producers, the attributes and pros and cons of each, the formalities that must be followed to maintain financial and legal liability protections.

Recap & Feedback: Legal Planning for Specialty Crop Producers

Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022, time & location TBD, Rock Springs, PA (as part of Penn State Ag Progress Days)

This session will be an in-person workshop summarizing the content and materials from Topics #1 – #3, with substantial time devoted to producer Q&A and the solicitation of feedback to ensure that topics covered throughout this project are meeting the interests of specialty crop producers.

Topic #4: Licensing and Regulatory Obligations in Selling Raw and Processed Specialty Crop Products

Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022, 12:00 p.m., via Zoom.

This topic will educate producers on the state laws and county/municipal ordinances that regulate the activity of producing and selling foods for human consumption, including health/food code licensing requirements for the storage, production, and sale of food, sales tax licensing, and collection, and other regulatory requirements that may apply in particular contexts, venues, or jurisdictions.

Topic #5: Municipal Law & Zoning for Agritourism and Agritainment, Specialty Crop Processing & Sales

Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2022, 12:00 p.m., via Zoom.

This topic will provide producers with an understanding of local municipal government requirements and procedures for permits and approvals that may be required for agritourism, agritainment, processing, and sales activities conducted in conjunction with the production of specialty crops.

Topic #6: Statutory Protections/Restrictions: Understanding PA’s Ag Area Security, Right-To-Farm, ACRE, and Clean & Green Laws for Specialty Crop Producers

Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022, 12:00 p.m., via Zoom.

This topic will instruct producers on how to understand the scope of, and potentially employ, the various statutory protections in Pennsylvania law for agricultural operations, and frequently also available in other jurisdictions. It will also examine business operation limitations that arise from voluntary enrollment in governmental benefit programs which seek to preserve agricultural uses of land.

Recap & Final Focus

Live: to be conducted as part of the 2023 PASA Sustainable Agriculture Conference

This session will be an in-person workshop summarizing the content and materials from Topics #1 – #6, with substantial time devoted to producer Q &A and the solicitation of feedback to ensure that topics covered throughout this project met the interests of specialty crop producers.

These presentations are created as part of the Pennsylvania Specialty Crop Block Grant Program