Agriculture

We advise agricultural businesses on all legal questions surrounding the continued running of their business.

A successful agricultural business must master diverse legal and regulatory questions in both crop farming and animal husbandry: As a producer, farmers must do more than just be familiar with the legal quality standards and certification requirements, when it comes to sales. Even the production stage, that is the cultivation of crops or the raising and breeding of livestock, is exhaustively regulated (e.g. the Fertilizer Ordinance). Additionally, special contractual provisions with suppliers, such as those relating to the cleaning of transport vehicles or storage in the company’s own warehouse, as well as special feeding and housing conditions, etc., must be reviewed, observed and documented. This is only added to by other legal relationships, be it as an employer, in the context of fire safety, as a policyholder (think “primary production”), or in connection with grant applications. One also must not lose sight of the general civil law, including the relevant special provisions (e.g. rights of way, liens on fruits, etc.). Additionally, there are sometimes confusing developments in the law, if for examples, the state of Baden-Württemberg enacts a law on insecticides, whilst a federal law on insecticide is still being debated in parliament.

Given the plethora of continuously shifting legal requirements, it is understandable that farmers are left wondering what needs to document for the regulatory authorities and where their freedom of contract reaches its limits.

We would be happy to work with you, potentially during an initial consultation, to develop a legally sound and practical solution.