Agriculture

Subscribe to Agriculture via RSS

Say hello to the country music duo The Doohickeys. They have a great sound (both country and western). Check ’em out!

With such songs as “All Hat, No Cattle” (the title track of their latest album), “I Wish My Truck Was Bigger,” “This Town Sucks,” “Rein It In Cowboy,” “Too Ugly to Hitchhike,” and “City Folk. 

Above is a parody ad for a rural eminent domain lawyer, something they are familiar with. (Or at least we assume its a parody ad.)

And this, the song by which we first learned of them, “Farm Lawyer,” about singer Haley Spence Brown’s dad, Ward Brown, a Missouri eminent domain lawyer and colleague. 

But one day a man came knockin’ in a fancy pinstripe suit.
He said “I got a note here from the government, and …

Continue Reading The Doohickeys – Eminent Domain Country & Western

A fascinating dirt … err water law (?) decision from the Texas Supreme Court.

We were all set to write up the recent decision in Cactus Water Services, LLC v. COG Operating, LLC, No. 23-0676 (June 27, 2025), when the Texas Agriculture Law Blog beat us to the punch and published a great summary and analysis of the case that we could never beat. Check out Tiffany Lashmet, “Texas Supreme Court: Produced Water Conveys to Mineral Lessee” (June 30, 2025) for details and analysis. 

The fight was between the surface owner and the owner of the mineral estate about who owns “produced water,” a fancy way of saying the byproduct of fracking for oil and gas. As the court described it, it is “a mixture of fracking fluid, hypersaline brine, residual hydrocarbons, and other substances of varying concentrations.” Slip op. at 6-7. Perhaps not surprisingly, until fairly recently…

Continue Reading Texas: Liquid Oil And Gas Waste Belongs To Mineral Owner

Here’s more on an issue we recently covered involving Texas’s “depopulation” of captive white-tailed deer in order to curb Chronic Wasting Disease. In the earlier opinion, the court held that the owner of a deer-breeding facility did not have a property interest in the deer, and thus could not assert a due process or takings claim.

The court in Young v. Texas Parks & Wildlife Dep’t, No. 15-24-00052-CV (Apr. 24, 2025) reached the same conclusion. We’re posting the latest opinion because it elaborates on the “ferae naturae” issue, and every law student and lawyer’s old (very old) friend, the rule of capture. 

The court rejected the owner’s arguments:

Comparing the facts in Tyler to those here, Young argues that the common law doctrines of ferae naturae and the rule of capture existed long before the Texas Legislature stepped in and began regulating white-tailed deer. In…

Continue Reading More On That White-Tailed Deer Takings Case: Law Of Capture Subject To Public Trust

PXL_20240422_045016733.MP
There are some rewards for working late in the 808

Yesterday was the last day of instruction for the Spring 2024 semester at the University of Hawaii Law School. Did these last few months ever go by fast. 

A big thank you to Professor Mark M. Murakami, with whom I guest-lectured at the Old School (both of us earned our JD’s at the Law School) over the semester, on such topics as Euclid, vested rights and development agreements, and of course limitations on the police power such as takings.

Although our students have another couple of weeks to finish up with their final papers, we can say with certainty that the future of Hawaii land use law is in good hands. We had some very intriguing and educational discussions over the past few months. 

PXL_20230426_222214630

Law of the Splintered Paddle

PXL_20240423_050055849.MP       
Old School chalkboards remain in some of the classrooms. …

Continue Reading Aloha To Another Semester Of U. Hawaii Land Use

This one takes a bit of sifting through, but if you do so, you will eventually savor the arguments. Try and follow this thread.

In 2014, pistachio growers with what seemed to be established rights to pump groundwater for irrigation of their trees and who never had to pay fees or were subject to other governmental regulation, were subject to the newly-adopted Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. This statute, designed to manage groundwater, empowers local groundwater agencies to create management plans and the typical things that such regulatory agencies do.

In the course of determining the “sustainable yield” of the groundwater basin that supplies the pistachio growers’ water, the local agency purported to determine the rights of various users relative to each other. The agency concluded that “public pumpers” have entitlement to 100% of the native groundwater, the pistachio growers’ preexisting water rights notwithstanding. If the pistachio farmers wanted to pump…

Continue Reading Pay To Play? Cal SCT Asked If Challenger Must First Pay A Fee To Object To Zero Water Allocation As A Taking

ALI-CLE brochure cover page

Here’s the brochure and the full agenda and registration information for the upcoming ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference at the JW Marriott in New Orleans, February 1-3, 2024.

This is the long-running nationally-focused conference on all things eminent domain, takings, valuation, and related. We have three tracks, from which you can choose a la carte – Practice, Substantive, and Condemnation 101:

For over 40 years, we’ve been bringing eminent domain practitioners together to examine the latest issues, engage in healthy debate, and get the information they need to stay current in their practice. This year – our 41st – is THE perfect time to reunite with your eminent domain colleagues. There will be plentiful opportunities to meet and mingle with the faculty and other registrants – throughout the conference and at evening social events. Attendees come back year after year to make new friendships and renew…

Continue Reading Here’s The Program For The 41st ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-3, 2024, New Orleans

Here’s what we’re reading this Tuesday:

Worth checking Continue Reading Tuesday Round-Up: Sackett, Tyler, Defending Zoning, Canada Property Rights … And More

If a zoning statute or ordinance sets out the uses permitted in a zone, and the uses not permitted in the zone, and a property owner wants to make a use not permitted in the zone, all she needs to do is apply for a variance, or a Conditional Use Permit, or a nonconforming use permit, or a Special Use Permit, right? After all, isn’t the point of these exceptions to bright-line use prohibitions to build in a large degree of flexibility and afford front-line regulators in the right circumstances the discretion to grant a use the legislature prohibited? One size does not fit all, does it? 

That was the issue that closely divided the Hawaii Supreme Court in Hoomoana Foundation v. Land Use Comm’n, No. SCWC-17-181 (Mar. 10, 2023). In a 3-2 opinion, the court concluded that when a use is expressly barred by a zoning statute (and…

Continue Reading Denying Uses (But Allowing Discretionary Ad Hoc Exceptions) Isn’t A Recipe For Rational Land Use

40th ALI-CLE

We were eagerly anticipating 40th American Law Institute-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference. The 2022 Conference in Scottsdale was one of the first meetings where everyone was back in-person (and was a smashing success), but that conference was early in the game so not everyone could or would attend. But in the past year most of us got back to some semblance of “normal,” and the turnout promised to be good.

We had record registrations: with over 300 attendees, faculty, and staff signed up, things were shaping up.

Plus, we were headed to Austin, Texas. The last time we held the Conference there in 2016, we loved it so much it has been in-demand for a return visit. And this year is the debut Conference for some new planning co-chairs for both the main tracks as well as the “Condemnation 101” tracks, so the buzz for the…

Continue Reading Ice Ice Baby: A Report From The 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-4, 2023, Austin

We really want you there…

One (nearly) last reminder that there’s still time to register for your space at the 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, February 1-4, 2023, in Austin. In the past several years, we have sold out due to the conference room capacity and the conference hotel block. But there’s still space, although we are nearly full. So register now – don’t delay any further! 

Here’s the brochure with the complete agenda, schedule, and faculty listing. But to tempt you, here are some of the highlights of the program:

  • Everything Old is New Again: Why Today’s Practitioners Need to Understand the Original Meaning of the Takings and Just Compensation Clauses
  • When the SWAT Team Comes (No) Knocking: Police Power Takings

  • Private Utility Takeovers – Lessons From a 67 Day Trial

  • “Contraband”: How Property Rights Helped Pave the Way for Civil Rights

  • Valuation

…
Continue Reading (Nearly) Last Call: There’s Still Time To Join Us For The 40th ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, Feb 1-4, Austin