Agricultural Law Law and Legal Definition
Agricultural law encompasses a vast array of issues covered by numerous state and federal laws. Such issues include, among others:
- agricultural cooperatives- formation and membership structure, financial structure, marketing contracts, membership disputes
- crop and livestock financing
- farm financing and borrowers' rights from farm credit institutions and state lending programs
- herbicide and pesticide price manipulation and pricing, injuries to the crop, humans or animals
- leases of agricultural land and pasture
- livestock sales and breeding rights
- contracts for the storage and marketing of crops
- agricultural production contracts
- insurance coverage against flooding, extensive snowfall collapsing farm buildings, etc.
- water resources law- water quality, wetlands preservation, allocation of water resources, drainage
A farm is any land used to produce crops, livestock, specialty livestock, or grazing and includes woodland and wasteland not under cultivation or used for pasture or grazing. According to the US Government, a farm is any place from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold during the census year.
The provisions of Article 2 (Sales) of the Uniform Commercial Code apply to the sale of a crop to be grown or that is growing, since the definition of "goods" includes growing crops. The presence or potential existence of the crop at the time of making the contract may determine the nature of the contract as one either of sale or to sell, may affect the validity and/or enforceability of the contract, and may determine the time when title to the crop is transferred.
