In the waning hours of 2025, the Indiana Court of Appeals handed down an important victory to an Indiana dairy farm, affirming the zoning approval given by the county board more than 18 months earlier. This appellate win allows the dairy to move forward with a state-of-the-art dairy, which will supply milk for midwestern grocery
Latest from Schroeder Ag Law Blog
Review of National Conference – Top Environmental Issues for 2026
I recently attended and spoke at the American Bar Association’s national conference for the Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (SEER) in DC. Here are the top three issues I heard about that could impact agriculture in 2026.
Eminent Domain and Renewable Energy
Eminent domain is government’s ability to “take” privately owned land for a public purpose in exchange for “just compensation” paid to the landowner. How far can the “public purpose” stretch? Could a public utility use eminent domain to take land for a carbon project? Or a solar field? A private company’s data center project? The
Air Emissions Win for Livestock and Poultry
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the EPA’s rule exempting air emissions from animal waste from EPCRA reporting requirements. This is a significant win for farmers because it confirms that normal emissions from a livestock or poultry operation do not trigger a reporting requirement originally intended for industrial
New Review Standards Don't Apply to Zoning Appeals
Last year, Indiana’s legislature modified the appeal process for IDEM permits and other administrative law proceedings. I wrote about this change to the Administrative Orders and Procedures Act (“AOPA”) about a year ago. Those amendments had a similar impact as the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Loper Bright and basically meant a court
Indiana Senate Committee Advances Livestock Inspection Bill
Like many states, Indiana’s General Assembly is currently in session. There are a number of agricultural bills on deck this year, including one which would impact livestock and poultry farmers across the state. On February 3rd, the Indiana Senate Environmental Affairs Committee amended and passed a confined feeding operation (CFO) inspection bill out of committee
Re-Examining Indiana Water Law in Light of Today's Competing Demands
In some ways, Indiana is completely unlike Arizona or California when it comes to water. For most of the past 50 years, our focus has been water quality, not quantity. Even now, when it comes to the water question in Indiana (and much of the midwest), the issue is not one of insufficient total water
Mounting Litigation Over PFAS in Biosolids
A series of recent New York Times pieces have sounded the alarm about PFAS chemicals in biosolids on agricultural ground. First, there was the article on August 31, 2024 entitled “Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals.” Two articles on September 21, 2024 later heightened the level of concern: “Her Children
Who Decides if a County Solar or Wind Ordinance is Valid?
There is a lot of change these days in the local wind and solar zoning world. It seems that every week, a new county changes its setbacks, imposes a moratorium to stop a wind or solar project, or clarifies its requirements to entice new solar investment. But it may be time to think about whether
What does the Supreme Court's Decision Overturning Chevron Have to do with Agriculture? (Hint: Everything!)
On June 28, 2024, the United States Supreme Court overturned a 40-year-old precedent. Since 1984, the Chevron doctrine has required courts to give deference to the way an administrative agency interpreted its own rules when those rules were ambiguous. But in the Loper Bright case, the Supreme Court overturned Chevron and ruled that courts