Agriculture & Agribusiness

Your goals come first. We are a client-focused, business-friendly, and cost-effective firm that strives to produce creative solutions to whatever challenges lie ahead. Alston & Bird’s Agriculture & Agribusiness Team understands the opportunities, inherent risks, and complexities involved in farming and agribusiness. Farmers and ranchers, and the agribusinesses that support them, ensure that a safe, affordable food supply is available in the United States and around the world. Our Food & Beverage Team prides itself on understanding the intricacies throughout the sector, starting with agricultural suppliers and the farm gate through packers, processers, food manufacturers, transportation providers, and retailers – truly a farm to table, full-service approach.

We work with growers, buyers, importers, exporters, and distributors of many agricultural products, including eggs, poultry, dairy, peanuts, beef, pork, hemp, corn, soybeans, and specialty crops such as fresh produce, tree fruit, mushrooms, and leafy greens. Our clients include packers, processors, distributors, and retailers that prepare and market feed and food products.

Led by two former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) attorneys, our Agriculture & Agribusiness Team is uniquely positioned to guide your farm or agribusiness through legal, regulatory, and business challenges. Our experience extends not only to all 29 agencies of the USDA but also to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Labor (DOL), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Department of Commerce (DOC), and other regulating bodies. We counsel clients on import requirements, trade remedy actions, and laws, statutes, and regulations impacting this critical sector, including but not limited to:

• Federal Meat Inspection Act
• Poultry Products Inspection Act
• Egg Products Inspection Act
• Organic Foods Production Act
• Packers and Stockyards Act
• Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
• Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act
• Food Safety Modernization Act
• Fair Labor Standards Act
• Immigration and Nationality Act
• Agriculture Improvement Act (Farm Bill)
• Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act

From regulatory compliance and enforcement to policy monitoring and advocacy to litigation and investigations, Alston & Bird’s agriculture and agribusiness lawyers help you advance your business goals and thrive in an increasingly complex environment.

Regulatory Compliance & Enforcement

• Advising brick-and-mortar and online food retailers on compliance with the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
• Defended and resolved a major administrative action brought by the USDA under the Animal Health Protection Act and Plant Protection Act involving animal- and plant-derived product imports. 
• Represented a farmer in an appeal of an action involving the Farm Service Agency at the USDA National Appeals Division. 
• Advising purchasers and sellers of produce on the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. 
• Represented clients responding to regulatory enforcement actions brought by state departments of agriculture and the USDA.
• Developed a regulatory strategy for a food manufacturer regulated under the Food Safety Inspection Service related to product naming considerations.
• Advised agricultural trade associations on agricultural labor issues, including the H-2A visa program, Occupational Safety and Health Act, and wage-and-hour regulatory matters. 
• Developed a political and regulatory strategy to reverse a denial of a USDA Rural Development Rural Energy for America Program grant funding award. 
• Negotiated a settlement with the Agricultural Marketing Service involving alleged violations of the USDA NOP.
• Analyzed and drafted a comment to Department of Labor rulemakings for a forestry client.
• Counseled clients on state and federal foreign disclosure of agricultural land reporting requirements. 
• Developed a California Proposition 65 strategy for a specialty crop trade association.
• Represented a dairy farmer seeking changes to the USDA Farm Service Agency’s Dairy Indemnity Payment Program to provide indemnity for animals impacted by PFAS contamination.

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Policy Advice

• Advocated on behalf of an agricultural trade association for modifications to the federal crop insurance program in the 2023 Farm Bill.
• Prepared comments to the National Organic Standards Board on behalf of an international agricultural trade association. 
• Advised a national forest organization on how changes to independent contractor regulations have impacted the industry.
• Interpreted legislative text to advise clients based on their policy objectives and collaborated on crafting cohesive legislative strategies.
• Facilitated congressional fly-ins and meetings between staff or high-level officials in the Administration for agricultural trade associations.
• Developed a coordinated advocacy strategy, including identifying opportunities for clients to engage in the policymaking process, response plans to adverse legislative and regulatory proposals, letter writing campaigns, and fly-ins.

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Immigration Assistance & Enforcement

• Counseled trade associations in identifying existing foreign workforce solutions available to their cooperative, packing, and processing facility members. 
• Counseled multiple agricultural trade associations on H-2A visa program regulatory activity and assisted in advocacy efforts to reform the H-2A visa program.
• Drafted legislative text and strategy for cooperative, packing, and processing facilities to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act.
• Defending a leading egg producer in proceedings before the Executive Office of Immigration Review of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• General counseling to agribusinesses and trade associations on I-9 compliance and ICE inspections.

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Agribusiness Litigation

• Representing a company against a citizen suit filed by environmental organizations over alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.
• Represented an almond, walnut, and pistachio grower in a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of a Ninth Circuit decision upholding a delta smelt “biological opinion” under the Endangered Species Act.
• Represented a timber company in a Clean Water Act challenge to the EPA’s designation of a creek as an “impaired waterbody.”
• Represented a major agricultural lender in peanut-related litigation that led to the precedent-setting Uniform Commercial Code decision Farm Credit of Northwest Florida, ACA v. Easom Peanut Company, 312 Ga. App. 374 (2011).
• Lead trial counsel for one of the largest integrated poultry companies in the United States defending against claims brought under the Packers and Stockyards Act and Agricultural Fair Practices Act.
• Counsel to a group of Vidalia onion producers in appellate litigation in the Georgia Court of Appeals.
• Won summary judgment for a large integrated poultry company in breach of contract litigation that was affirmed by the Georgia Court of Appeals.
• Represented a large peanut marketing company in litigation involving long-term peanut supply contracts.
• Trial counsel for a large integrated poultry company in a week-long jury trial in which the jury awarded the company more than $630,000 in damages on its breach of contract claims and awarded the defendant nothing on its counterclaim.
• Counsel for a large integrated poultry company defending against claims arising out of a delayed freight train. The arbitration panel found for the company on all claims and awarded the plaintiff nothing.
• Representing a leading transportation provider in compliance with regulatory restrictions on the shipment of animals

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International Trade

• Represented the first European beef producer to be permitted to export beef to the United States since the lifting of the embargo.
• Guided clients through voluntary disclosures of violations of export and economic sanctions regulations.
• Developed and implemented import, export, economic sanctions, and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) compliance policies, procedures, and training programs.
• Designed and led internal trade compliance reviews and due diligence efforts.
• Obtained numerous favorable export classifications, advisory opinions, and commodity jurisdiction determinations from the Departments of Commerce, State, and Treasury, including use of licensing opportunities for humanitarian shipments to sanctioned locations.
• Represented clients in prior disclosures of import violations related to tariff classification, valuation, origin, and eligibility for preferential treatment, including for importers of agricultural products, processed foods, and agricultural equipment.
• Secured over 100 binding rulings and protest decisions from U.S. Customs and Border Protection addressing the origin, classification, marking, and value of imported products, as well as the eligibility of products for preferential treatment under NAFTA/USMCA, CAFTA, GSP, HTSUS 9801/9802, and similar programs, and helped clients recover and save tens of millions of dollars in duty, including tariff classification and USMCA eligibility of food products.
• Advising clients on the use of special tariff provisions for machinery, equipment, and implements to be used for agricultural and horticultural purposes.

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Commercial

• Negotiating various transactional agreements such as purchase orders, purchase agreements, and distribution agreements on behalf of companies across the supply chain, including companies supplying and purchasing produce.
• Represented a private equity firm in its acquisition of a major distributor of produce. 

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Antitrust Compliance & Litigation

• Representing leading national trade association of agricultural producers on antitrust compliance issues, including Capper–Volstead Act matters.
• Representing a leading poultry company in its acquisition by a rival that involved a DOJ investigation and private antitrust litigation.
• Representing a leading dairy producer in antitrust litigation and merger matters.

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Intellectual Property

• Representing a consortium of some of the largest producers of Vidalia onions in Georgia on efforts to protect their brand against produce grown outside the state.
• Counseling one of the largest seed producers with intellectual property matters.

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Additional Experience

• Agribusiness Regulation: Extensive counseling of local and state farm bureaus on proposed legislation impacting agribusiness and property rights.
• False Advertising & Food Labeling: Counsel to a produce grower in petitioning the USDA’s National Organic Program (NOP) in obtaining reinstatement of the client’s organic certification following suspension by an organic certifying agent.
• Environmental Litigation: Counseling on criminal EPA enforcement actions.
• California Regulatory: Developed a regulatory and media advocacy strategy for a client and obtained the repeal of onerous NPDES permit conditions.

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