Annual/Termination Reports:

[02/06/2024] [04/21/2025] [03/13/2026]

Report Information

Participants

Shannon Ferrell - Oklahoma State
Jesse Richardson - WVU
Elizabeth Thilmany - UMD
Brooke Duer - Penn State
Jennifer Zwagerman - Drake Law School
Jennifer Friedel - Va Tech
Paul Goeringer - UMD
Kristine Tidgren - Iowa State

Brief Summary of Minutes

Participants met for lunch during the American Ag Law Association's annual meeting in Charlotte.  The focus was to encourage other land grant ag law faculty to join the Multi-state project and become more active in the projects.  We had a good turn out and expect to see increases over time.  The main push was talking about the ongoing research projects that many of us work on and are included in the multi-state project and that by participating more, we would be able to develop more regional and national-focused results that assist stakeholders in better understanding the law.  Discussions were held on how this would benefit our individual state programs.

 

At the same time this venue was chosen for our annual meeting since many of the multistate partners and potential partners already attend the American Ag Law meetings and present at these sessions.  We continue to work on recruiting and are actively planning our sessions for 2024 in Memphis.

Accomplishments

<p>None currently as of the meeting.</p>

Publications

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Paul Goeringer
Jesse Richardson
Jennifer Friedel
Robert Branan

Brief Summary of Minutes

The committee met on the morning of Nov. 7 to discuss goals to move the project forward and grow membership. During the meeting, it was decided to begin planning a regional conference to highlight ag law research not only in the region but around the country, focused on the project's research areas.  The committee has continued to meet past Nov. to determine dates and locations.  The team is currently considering Oct. 29 in Shepardstown WV at the National Conseration Training Center with sessions focused on heirs property, environmental law (including right-to-farm farm), and agritourism issues.

At the same time, the team discussed ways to potentially collaborate with the Heirs Property Research Committee, but no real plan was developed.  The team discussed ways to continue to collaborate internally on projects and develop multistate research projects related to heirs property and agritourism issues.

During the American Ag Law meetings the project submitted a number of sessions with a few selected for the larger program.  The venue is selected since many of our colleagues attend the meetings and we are continuing to work on recruitment to better highlight how this can help with research collaboration.  Jesse Richardson presented on the Ethical Considerations in Representing Owners of Heirs Property during the preconference on Nov. 7 and the Land Use And Resource Law Update.  The team is looking at what to submit to the 2025 AALA Meetings in Scottsdale AZ Nov. 5 to 7. 

Accomplishments

<p>Beginning to plan annual conference for NE region to highlight ag law research and outreach being done in the area of heirs property, agritourism, and environmental law issues.&nbsp; Attempting to collaborate with the American Agricultural Law Association as a part of it and working to expand the membership through the conference.&nbsp; Currently planned for Oct. 29 in Shepardstown WV.</p>

Publications

<p>Russo, Holly, Danielle Gratz, and Paul Goeringer. Rooting for Change: Rethinking Standing in Climate Litigation Related to Agriculture, forthcoming Drake Journal of Agricultural Law (2025).</p><br /> <p>Majnooni, Sima, Holly Russo, and Paul Goeringer.&nbsp;Guidelines for Delaware and Maryland Ag Operations on Writing an Employee Manual.&nbsp;EB-2024-0725 (Jan. 2025).</p>

Impact Statements

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Report Information

Participants

Paul Goeringer, UMD, Kelly Willfert, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Adam Rabinowitz, Auburn University, Jesse Richardson, West Virginia University, Andrew Branon, NC State University, and Jen Friedel, Virginia Tech

Brief Summary of Minutes

The committee met the afternoon of Nov. 5th at the Kierland Resort.  During the meeting the focus was in on the regional conference from two weeks before discussing what worked and what could be improved. At the same time, the team also welcomed Adam Rabinowitz from Auburn University to discuss research he is leading and working with others on this team related to agricultural bankruptcy.  At the same time, he discussed his work and projects on heirs property and the team began to look at ways to bring in more ag economists into the project specifically focused in on our research areas for the project.

During the American Ag Law meetings the project submitted a number of sessions with a few selected for the larger program.  The venue is selected since many of our colleagues attend the meetings and we are continuing to work on recruitment to better highlight how this can help with research collaboration. 

Accomplishments

<p>Short-term outcomes:&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>Outputs: The project continued to deliver outputs in 2025.&nbsp; The team collaborated with two University of Maryland, Baltimore law students.&nbsp; One focused on heirs property and allowed the team to do a literature review on existing research related to addressing the issue of heirs property on agricultural and forested lands. The team was able to use this to begin exploring avenues of new research to think about additional ways to allow those with heirs property to retain ownership of the land.&nbsp; At the same time, the student was instrumental in conducting structured interviews with existing clinics focused on free will clinics and heir's property clinics.&nbsp; The team is working to compile those results into a journal article for publication in 2026 on how state land grant universities could work with local non-profit legal services to develop heir's property clinics across the US.&nbsp; This work has allowed one team member to secure NE SARE funding to train service providers to better work and address issues with owners of heirs property.</p><br /> <p>On the agritourism front, the UMB student was successful in helping the team do a through case law review of existing agritourism cases, developing out what issues existed in those cases and the types of activities.&nbsp; This has been fed into existing grant work on this front being used by all the schools apart of the project.&nbsp; This work will be built into planned extension publications for agritourism operations in the region.</p><br /> <p>With environmental and labor, the team has continued deliver Extension fact sheets and peer reviewed online publications, through Southern Ag Today focused in on this issues.&nbsp; The collaboration of this project has yielded these publications and the interactiions of the team members on email has contributed.&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>Finally, the last output was conducting a successful Mid-Atlantic Ag and Natural Resources Law Conference in October at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepardstown WV.&nbsp; This conference was planned by Penn State University, Ohio State University, West Virginia University, University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, and NC State University.&nbsp; The conference was attended by 52 attorneys, Extension faculty, law students, lenders, and farmers in the area.&nbsp; Topics covered included solar development, local zoning regulations as it relates to agritourism, ag policy update, conservation easements, estate planning, and a session on the ethics related to AI.&nbsp; The team is already prepping for the 2026 conference to hopefully be held at the same location in September of 2026.&nbsp; The conference was supported through funding available through Va. Tech.&nbsp; This helped us meet a milestone of delivering a regional conference and the team is looking at how to partner with the American Ag Law Association when they are on the East Coast hosting their annual conference in 2027 to conduct a national meeting focused on these issues.&nbsp;</p><br /> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Publications

<div><strong>Environment</strong></div><br /> <div><br /> <div>Robert Andrew Branan,&nbsp;</div><br /> <div>Caitlin Flanagan&nbsp; &amp; Colton Leach,&nbsp;<em>Solar PV Development of Agricultural Land</em>&nbsp;(Mar. 2026), North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center,&nbsp;<a href="https://cms.carolinas-dash.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Solar-PV-Development-of-Agricultural-Land-Carolinas-DASH-March-2026.pdf" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cms.carolinas-dash.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Solar-PV-Development-of-Agricultural-Land-Carolinas-DASH-March-2026.pdf&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1773847367160000&amp;usg=AOvVaw1FdjD4mudOLSiBGaq6LSkL">https://cms.carolinas-dash.<wbr />org/wp-content/uploads/2026/<wbr />02/Solar-PV-Development-of-<wbr />Agricultural-Land-Carolinas-<wbr />DASH-March-2026.pdf</a>.</div><br /> <div>&nbsp;</div><br /> <div><br /> <div><strong>Heirs Property</strong></div><br /> <div>Clarisse Owens, Robert Andrew Branan, Kurt Smith, Biswanath Dari, Noah Ranells,&nbsp;<em>Land Loss Perceptions and Shared Values: Heirs' Property Owners in North Carolina,&nbsp;</em>Journal of Rural Social Sciences (accepted for publication 2026).</div><br /> <div>&nbsp;</div><br /> <div><strong>Agritourism</strong></div><br /> <div>Robert Andrew Branan,&nbsp;<em>Neighbor Complaints: The Basics of North Carolina&rsquo;s Right to Farm and Bona Fide Farm Zoning</em>, NC State Extension (Jan. 10, 2025),&nbsp;<a href="https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/neighbor-complaints-the-basics-of-north-carolinas-right-to-farm-and-bona-fide-farm-zoning" target="_blank" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/neighbor-complaints-the-basics-of-north-carolinas-right-to-farm-and-bona-fide-farm-zoning&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1773847367160000&amp;usg=AOvVaw36xIt87aqxeUo3KC5GgSGs">https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/<wbr />neighbor-complaints-the-<wbr />basics-of-north-carolinas-<wbr />right-to-farm-and-bona-fide-<wbr />farm-zoning</a>.</div><br /> </div><br /> </div><br /> <div>&nbsp;</div>

Impact Statements

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