Ag Law Handbook

Ag Law Handbook

Maura Bennett
Maura Bennett

The Alabama Farmers Federation is surveying members about their most important legal issues as producers and landowners.

The Federation will use their answers as it updates the Ag Law Handbook, a legal guide that it has published since 2000.

The Alabama Farmers Federation’s Agriculture Counsel John Allen Nichols says this is the first time they've surveyed members since the Ag Law Handbook’s inception.

Producers’ questions center on labor and employment, animal liability, environmental law, property and water rights, lending, and banking and…

Nichols: “ Estate planning seems to be one area where people are asking a lot of questions. The central theme of the question seems to be how do I keep the family farm in the family. How do we prevent the farm from being broken up for future generations? As land costs go up farmers continue to face urban sprawl, I think that that is going to be a problem certainly that folks face. They’re looking for answers.”

He says the hope is that farmers and ranchers will use the handbook as a useful resource that can answer legal questions and allow them to get back to what they do best.

It’s not legal advice but it is legal education and a starting point for many producers.

At some point in the future, Nichols says they may like to become a legal resource for members.

The Alabama Farmers Federation is a member of the National Farm Bureau which has a similar service for members nationwide.

Nichols says a team of folks will be working on compiling the updated Ag Law Handbook through the summer and fall. They hope to have the new version published in time for the Alabama Farmers’ Federation annual meeting in December.

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