Ag & Rural Law     Ag Econ 3257:  Winter 2008     University of Missouri  ASSIGNMENTS    Past Quizzes & Exams    Seating Chart    Blackboard

Course Description

Agricultural and Rural Law (Ag Econ 3257) is a survey course, introducing legal principles applicable to a broad array of everyday legal issues facing rural residents in Missouri.   International, multidisciplinary, and ethical perspectives and dimensions are liberally added.

Legal principles derive from federal and state constitutions, statutes, regulations, and court-made (common) law, as well as customs and culture.  Special emphasis is placed on the hierarchy of legal authority.

Topics covered include the judicial process, negligence and comparative negligence, parental liability for acts of their children, farm leases, deeds, easements, co-ownership,  nuisances, trespass by hunters and others, liability for injuries to children coming onto your property, hold-harmless notices and release-of-liability forms, assumption of the risk defense to liability, liability for farm animals, animal neglect & abuse, hunter harassment, dog bites and trespassing dogs, fencing duties, adverse possession, prescriptive rights, streams and public use rights, probate & wills, non-probate transfers, powers-of-attorney, living wills, durable powers of attorney for health care directives, living trusts, and estate/gift planning strategies.

Our ultimate objective is to improve our critical thinking ability as we analyze rural/agricultural happenings or business transactions for potential legal pitfalls. We seek to become more proactive by identifying practical and effective strategies to reduce our risk exposure to such problems. While you will not acquire the legal skills of an attorney, the knowledge and thinking skills acquired should significantly improve your chances of avoiding legal disputes and getting timely legal advice.

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Course Objectives:  Building respect for the "Rule of Law"

  1.  To be better able to anticipate legal problems
   2. To understand how the legal system works

 

Aristotle on How To Teach:

• Tell your audience what you're going to tell them

• Tell them

• Then tell them what you told them

 

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Point System

Seven Quizzes (@ 50 points each) ............................  350

Final Exam  .................................................................... (100)  (comprehensive)   (*Optional IF you took all seven quizzes)

"Just-In-Time" (JIT) Homework ....................................   97 

TOTAL POINTS ..........................................................   447

Grades may be assigned using + and -

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         Attendance and Participation

I record attendance.   Arriving late or leaving early counts the same as an absence.

You are allowed six (6) absences.   After that, missed attendance will reduce your course percentage by one percentage point for each additional absence.  No excuses.

If you miss twelve (12) or more classes, you will be assigned an "F" in the course.

If your grade lies at the border between two grades, I will consider your record of participating in class, both asking and answering questions, in deciding whether to "bump" your grade up a level. 

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Instructor

Stephen Matthews  
Email address:  MatthewsS@missouri.edu
Office:  210 Mumford Hall
Telephone:   882-0152
Secretary:  Melinda Poole (882-6368) (202 Mumford Hall) 
Office hours:  11am to noon, MWF, and by appointment

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Text:   No text, but there will be daily readings posted on the internet "Assignments" webpage and/or distributed in class.  You should get a large, three-ring binder and anticipate copy costs for what you would otherwise spend for a textbook (+/- $100). 

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Classroom Manners

• Keep a respectful tone in class
   
• Take NOTES (this really does improve your learning and understanding!)
   
• Listen carefully and respectfully to the ideas of others
   
• Don't make sidebar conversations, text-message, check cell phones, surf the internet, read emails, chat/IM, play with your cell phones, play video games...i.e., pay attention to the instructor and strive to be an active listener.
   
• Arrive before class starts (10:00am)
   
• Leave when the class is over (10:50pm)
   
• It is rude and a disturbance to the whole class to arrive late, to get up during class and "doing your thing" outside the classroom, and to depart before the class has been dismissed by the instructor.

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Academic Honesty

Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a university.  The University of Missouri has specific academic dishonesty administrative procedures (refer to the rules & regulations in the M-Book).

In cases of academic dishonesty, the instructor may award a failing grade for the assignment or a failing grade for the course, or may adjust the grade as deemed appropriate. The instructor also may require the student to repeat the assignment or to perform additional assignments. In addition to the instructor's disciplinary action, cases of academic dishonesty will be reported to the Office of the Provost for possible action.

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Americans with Disabilities

If you have special needs as addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and need assistance, please notify the instructor immediately. Reasonable effort will be made to accommodate your special needs.

If you need accommodations because of a disability,  please see me privately after class, or at my office.

Office location: 210 Mumford Hall      Office phone:  882-0152 

If you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform me immediately.

To request academic accommodations (for example, a notetaker), students must also register with the Office of Disability Services, S5 Memorial Union, 882-4696. It is the campus office responsible for reviewing documentation provided by students requesting academic accommodations, and for accommodations planning in cooperation with students and instructors, as needed and consistent with course requirements. For other MU resources for students with disabilities, click on "Disability Resources" on the MU homepage.   

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1. Blue Laws (basics)\
2. BLUE laws:  Colonial blue laws were based primarily on an English Sunday restriction passed in 1677 by Charles II, stating, "for the better observation and keeping holy the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday ... all and every person ... shall upon every Lord's day apply themselves to the observation of the same, by exercising themselves thereon in the duties of piety and true religion."  Despite centuries of change and secularization, Sunday restrictions have not only survived, they have thrived, remaining in effect in a majority of states even today.  For further information, see David N. Laband & Deborah Hendry Heinbuch, Blue Laws: The History, Economics, and Politics of Sunday-Closing Laws (1987).
   • Some commentators assert that the term derives from the 1665 laws of the New Haven Colony, which were printed on blue paper.  However, other commentators argue that the term originates from the expression "true blue," a derogatory term for the Puritans that referred to their constant virtue and the strictness of their convictions.
   • See Mo. Ann. Stat. § 578.100 (West 2006) (prohibiting retail sale of motor vehicles, clothing, furniture, house wares, office supplies, appliances, hardware, tools, paints, building supplies, jewelry, silverware, watches, clocks, luggage, instruments, and musical recordings).
   • Chapter 578.100. 1. Whoever engages on Sunday in the business of selling or sells or offers for sale on such day, at retail, motor vehicles; clothing and wearing apparel; clothing accessories; furniture; housewares; home, business or office furnishings; household, business or office appliances; hardware; tools; paints; building and lumber supply materials; jewelry; silverware; watches; clocks; luggage; musical instruments and recordings or toys; excluding novelties and souvenirs; is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall upon conviction for the first offense be sentenced to pay a fine of not exceeding one hundred dollars, and for the second or any subsequent offense be sentenced to pay a fine of not exceeding two hundred dollars or undergo confinement not exceeding thirty days in the county jail in default thereof.
   • What "is allowed" for sale on Sunday under Missouri's "blue law statute?"  Gasoline, shoe laces, shoe polish (not shoes), food, animal feed, ...
     • List of Missouri counties which have voted to "exempt" themselves from the Missouri Sunday Blue Laws (Chapter 578.100)
       • Includes Boone County (1979), Ray (l981), Greene (l983), St. Charles (l984)
       • Most of Missouri's 114 counties have "exempted" themselves, but not all of them...which ones still are "covered" by the Missouri Blue Law?
3. Sunday "Blue Laws" (Missouri used to have 'em!)
4. States Struggle With Abolishing Blue Laws
5. Animal Neglect or Abuse?  St. Louis-area man accused of bludgeoning his dog with a sledgehammer and baseball bat. Prosecutors said Welch beat the dog for more than an hour before going inside and drinking beer, then returned and beat the dog for another hour. Welch told police he did it out of anger after the dog bit the nose of his 2-year-old son.
6. Animal Neglect or Abuse?  Two Wal-Mart employees who police say followed a manager’s orders to shoot and kill a stray cat have been charged with federal animal cruelty
7. Animal Neglect or Abuse?  A suburban St. Louis man has agreed to testify against his wife in an animal cruelty case in which cats were allegedly left to starve.
8. Animal Cruelty:  A man allegedly threw a kitten out his car window while driving down Interstate 275, and he was charged with one felony count of animal cruelty. This was a wanton and willful disregard of life
9. Animal Neglect or Abuse?  Prosecutors were studying charges against two men suspected of burning a 7-week-old kitten on a barbecue grill as several other people stood and watched
10. Animal Neglect or Abuse?  A bizarre fraternity contest resulted in animal cruelty allegations early yesterday when Columbia police discovered that members of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity had stuffed about 40 opossums - half of them living - in a large, plastic barrel.
11. Animal Rights Movement and CAFO's:  How do you make an "ethical" food choice?
    • Blake Hurst (Missouri farmer and MU/CAFNR alum): Agriculture Should Answer Its Critics In Search Of Itself
12. Tony Hawk:  What an Entrepreneur...and Skateboarder!
13. "Double Jeopardy" defined:  The double jeopardy rule arises from the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the relevant clause of which reads "nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." As double jeopardy applies only to charges that were the subject of an earlier final judgment there are many situations in which it does not apply despite the appearance of a retrial.
14. "Res Judicata" defined:  A case in which there has been a final judgment and is no longer subject to appeal.
15. Just a Scratch:  SUV vandalized by deep scratch (from a car key?) all around her vehicle
16. What is the difference between animals which are "vertebrates" and "invertebrates?"  (this will make a difference whether there is a "crime" under Missouri's Animal Neglect and/or Abuse Statute, enacted in 1983)
    • Birds are vertebrates or invertebrates?  (vertebrates)
    • Frogs?  (vertebrates)
    • Spiders?  (invertebrates)
    • Insects?  (invertebrates)
    • Fish?  (vertebrates)
17. Iowa Hog CAFOs and Sustainability:  The Impact on Local Development and Water Quality
18. Which countries produce more swine (hogs) than does the U.S.?   (China, 5 times U.S. production)
19. National Hog Farmer (magazine)
20. State-by-State Rankings in Hog Production (MO = 7th)
21. State-by-State Rankings:  Cattle & Calves  (MO = 9th)
22. State-by-State Rankings:  Broilers  (MO = 12th)
23. State-by-State Rankings:  Turkeys  (MO = 3rd)
24. State-by-State Rankings:  Eggs  (MO = 15th)
25. State-by-State Rankings:  Dairy (MO = 22nd)
26. State-by-State Rankings:  ALL LIVESTOCK  (MO = 15th; Texas = 1st; California = 2nd; Nebraska = 3rd; Iowa = 4th)
27. State-by-State Rankings:  TOTAL AGRICULTURAL RECEIPTS  (MO = 15th)  (California = 1st)  (Texas = distant 2nd)
28. Top 100 Hog Counties in the U.S. (1992-1997 changes)  (Sullivan County #6; Gentry County #98)
    • Missouri map showing Sullivan County (red color) and Gentry County (green color)
    • Premium Standard Farms LLC production operation in Missouri is based at Princeton, Mo. Production facilities are located in Mercer, Putnam, Sullivan, Daviess and Gentry counties.
    • Premium Standard Farms LLC operations at Texas is based near Dalhart, located in the northwest corner of the Texas panhandle. Dalhart has a mild, sunny year-round climate with easy accessibility to the winter and summer recreational areas in the nearby mountains. Four states lie within 75 miles of the city.  The city of Dalhart is located in two counties, Dallam and Hartley, and serves as the county seat for Dallam County. Dalhart is the center of other communities in the two counties, including Texline and Kerrick (located in Dallam County) and Hartley and Channing (located in Hartley County).
29. On average, one hog produces approximately one ton of manure per year.
30. Brazil clamps down on illegal Amazon loggers
31. Farmers protest in Argentina, blocking roads and ports
32. U.S. Hog Farms Grew Larger the Last 20 years or so
    • Until the late 1980s, hogs were typically raised from farrow (birth) to finish (ready for slaughter) on a crop-livestock farm, where feed was grown largely on the farm. All phases of production were contained on one operation. T
    • Between 1994 and 2001, the number of U.S. hog farms dropped by 60 percent, from over 200,000 to just above 80,000
    • Total U.S. hog inventories, though, remained at about 60 million head
    • the share of the hog/pig inventory on operations with 2,000 head or more increased from 37 percent in 1994 to nearly 75 percent in 2001. The largest operations, with 5,000 head or more, housed half of hog inventories in 2001.
    • Increasing hog numbers were not matched with increasing acreage. The largest operations average 16.7 hogs per acre, compared with only 1.4 hogs per acre for small operations.
    • Spreading manure on nearby land is the primary disposal method.
    • large, specialized operations—with an average of 16.7 hogs per acre of cropland on the farm versus 1.4 hogs for small operations—are mostly unable to reasonably dispose of manure nearby.
    • The crops receiving manure on large farms cannot generally assimilate the manure's nutrients.
    • An estimated 51 percent of nitrogen and 64 percent of phosphorus—both potentially harmful to water quality—in manure from confined hog operations nationwide exceeds onsite crop needs
    • And most of that excess occurs on large farms. The largest 2 percent of U.S. hog farms control only 2 percent of land on hog farms but produce 53 percent of the total excess nitrogen in hog manure and half the total excess phosphorus.
    • The manure problem goes beyond hogs to cattle, dairy, and poultry as well. The number of animals per acre of available cropland and pastureland controlled by confined operations increased 60 percent between 1982 and 1997

    • If the trends in livestock industry concentration that we found between 1982 and 1997 continue, more manure will be produced in areas without the physical capacity to agronomically use all the nutrients.  Structural change in animal production may make theland application of manure less feasible as a means of managing livestock waste.

    • Developing and implementing nutrient management plans that limit manure nutrient application to crop needs would entail widely varying costs among farms. Manure application limits would likely cause large animal facilities to seek and use more land for spreading manure or to find alternative use technologies. These operations would have to absorb added costs from developing a nutrient management plan, testing manure for nutrients, hauling manure longer distances, and applying manure to more land. For example, the average large hog operation (>2,500 head) in the Mid-Atlantic States would have to increase the amount of land used for spreading from 69 acres to 398 acres in order to meet a nitrogen-based application standard. The additional cost of meeting the standard could range from $1,450 to $32,500 per operator per year, depending on the willingness of landowners not producing livestock to accept manure. For operations with adequate land onsite, the additional cost of compliance is not likely to be prohibitive. Costs might increase greatly if land off the farm is needed for manure application.

33. A hog farm designed to turn out 2.5 million hogs annually will produce as much raw sewage as the city of Los Angeles
34. Hogs daily produce 2 to 4 times the amount of manure that humans produce
    • 10,000 hogs will produce the manure sewage equivalent to that of a city of 20,000 to 40,000 people
    • The sewage output of a city of 100,000 people is represented by a CAFO with 25,000 to 50,000 hogs
35. If Missouri has 154 Class IC hog CAFOs (@2,500 to 7,499 hogs capacity), that would represent the sewage output of 770,000 to 1,540,000 people at the minimum capacity of 2,500 hogs per CAFO, and 2,309,692 to 4,619,384 people at the maximum capacity for Class IC CAFOs of 7,499 hogs per CAFO.
    • If Missouri has 24 Class IB hog CAFOs (@7,500 to 17,499 hogs capacity), that would represent the sewage output of 360,000 to 720,000 people at the minimum capacity of 7,5000 hogs per CAFO, and 839,952 to 1,679,904 people at the maximum capacity per for Class IB CAFOs of 17,499 hogs per CAFO.
    • If Missouri has 14 Class IA hog CAFOs (@capacity greater than 17,500 hogs), that would represent the sewage output of 490,000 to 980,000 people at the minimum capacity of 17,500 hogs per CAFO for Class IA hog CAFOs.  There is no cap or maximum on the size of the largest hog CAFOs under Missouri law.
    • Summing up the daily manure output of Missouri's Class IC, IB, and IA hog CAFOs, the minimum human sewage output equivalent would be 1,620,000 to 3,240,000 people.
      • If the summing were done at the upper end of the CAFO class category capacity, then the minimum human sewage output equivalent would be 3,240,000 to 7,279,288 people.
36. What is Missouri's human population?  Around 6 million 
    • The good news is that much of Missouri's population (human sewage) is spread around the state, and that little of that human sewage is spread over land...and most of it is well treated.
    • What about all that hog manure?  Is it well treated?  Is it spread over land, where some of it runs off (rains) into streams and/or leaches into the groundwater?
37. Initiative Petition:  A change in statute (or a Constitutional amendment) proposed by citizens 
    • Missouri is one of 18 statutes that authorize voters to propose and vote upon amendments to the state constitution by an initiative
    • During 1910-2006, 23 initiatives were submitted to Missouri voters (7 were approved)
38. Referendum:  A citizen-initiated vote on legislation approved by the Missouri General Assembly
    • Missouri is one of 24 states that permit voters to propose changes to state statutes and to disapprove of an act of the legislature by a referendum
    • During 1914-2006, 26 referenda have been submitted to Missouri voters (24 rejected the bill enacted by the General Assembly)
      • 1920:  Approved prohibition enforcement
      • 1926:  Approved workmen's compensation
    • Referenda were widely used from 1914 to 1922, but have been used only six times in the last 80 plus years, and were last used in 1982.
      • 1982:  Rejected allowing big trucks on Missouri highways
      • 1970:  Rejected higher pensions for state employees
      • 1970:  Rejected higher state income tax
39. Missouri Fact Sheet (Economic Research Service, USDA)

40. Cattle Rustling Still A Problem In Missouri Despite Governor's Task Force To Deal With The Issue

41. Ban On Downer Cattle by USDA Could Cost Dairy Farmers

42. Forest Service buys a pair of flying drones to track down marijuana growers

43. Some Disadvantages of Using Co-ownership to Title an Investment Rental Property

44. Five Dangers of Joint Tenancy

45. What if I create a joint tenancy with my child?

46. What is a "Tenancy in Common Agreement?"

    • TIC agreements may specify greater ability to buy out the property owned by inheritors if the original owner is deceased.
    • The first importance is stating percentage of ownership. Without such a statement, all owners are considered as equal sharers in the property.
    • It is important to realize that tenancy does not in this case mean physically occupying the property. One could have a TIC agreement with several people who share in the revenues of renting a property. Conversely, one of the owners might occupy the property, while another lives elsewhere.
    • If a tenant chooses to improve the property and undertakes all expenses, he or she may be eligible for a greater share of ownership in the property. This, however, depends upon the original TIC agreement established. Alternately, if a tenant willfully causes damage to property, the TIC agreement may cause the tenant to loose ownership rights.
    • One of the owners may wish to add to or modify the property. In these cases the TIC agreement usually states whether this is an acceptable use of the property and what financial obligations this might incur to all owners.
47. Living Together:  A Legal Guide for Unmarried Couples (book)
48. Drafting a "Living Together Agreement"
    • Spells out the partners' financial responsibilities as a couple as well as what would happen in the event of a breakup.
    • When buying a house together, unmarried partners must be particularly careful in choosing how to hold title to the property. For example, if the property is held by both partners as "tenants in common," then when one partner dies his or her share of the home will pass to the next of kin unless there is a will directing otherwise. Holding the property as "joint tenants with right of survivorship" allows for automatic and probate-free transfer to the surviving partner. That transfer of ownership can, however, trigger a tax bill for the surviving partner. (Surviving spouses can inherit property tax-free.) Establishing a trust may help to avoid a large tax bill.

• How will we share household expenses (50/50, or according to each partner's financial ability)?
• How will assets and debts be divided in a breakup? What happens to assets that have both names on the title (such as a home or car)?
• If we break up, which partner has the option to remain in a shared home?
• Unmarried couples could draft a "living together agreement."
• If one partner moves into the house owned by the other partner, will the nonowner be put on the title? When? For what financial consideration?
• Will one partner provide financial support (the equivalent of alimony, or maintenance) to the other partner after a breakup?
• Who will contribute how much to the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and upkeep?
• Who will get what portion of the deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes (unmarried couples can't file joint federal tax returns)?
• What will happen in the event of a breakup? Will the house be sold?
• Will the profits be divided evenly, or will one partner get more?
• Does one partner have "first dibs" to buy the other partner out?

49.  Common Law Marriage:  Is it "for real" or just a myth?

• Do not assume that you have the rights of a married couple because you believe you are "common-law" married, or because you have registered as domestic partners.
• The belief that living together for seven years makes you common-law married is a myth.
• Fifteen states (NOT Missouri) and Washington, D.C., recognize common-law marriages among different-sex couples, but you must "hold yourself out to be married" by, for example, using the same last name, referring to each other as husband and wife, and filing joint income tax returns.
  • Alabama
    Colorado
    Georgia (if created before 1/1/97)
    Idaho (if created before 1/1/96)
    Iowa
    Kansas
    Montana
    New Hampshire (for inheritance purposes only)
    Ohio (if created before 10/10/91)
    Oklahoma (possibly only if created before 11/1/98. Oklahoma's laws and court decisions may be in conflict about whether common law marriages formed in that state after 11/1/98 will be recognized.)
    Pennsylvania (if created before 1/1/05)
    Rhode Island
    South Carolina
    Texas
    Utah
    Washington, D.C.

1. Title by Adverse Possession; and Easement by Prescription
2. What Is An "Easement?"  How is one created?
3. Five common defenses to adverse possession
4. Under Florida law, adverse possession only takes 7 years
5. How long is the "continuous time in adverse use" for other states?  (list of states)
6. Ask A Mexican!  (YouTube & weekly articles)
7. Early Surveys:  They Went Where Only Indians Had Been (Surveying the Missouri-Arkansas Territory)
8. Boone County, Missouri Recorder's Office (searchable public records)
9. Missouri Probate FAQs
10. Short-Form (Simplified) Probate in Missouri:  For Estates Valued Less Than $40,000
11. Probate Property and Non-Probate Property
12. 22 days after Hughes died, a three-page handwritten document, filled with misspellings, surfaced on a desk at Mormon world headquarters in Salt Lake City. It left one-sixteenth of the Hughes fortune to one Melvin Dummar of Gabbs, Nev., who later said that driving through the desert one night several years earlier, he had happened upon Hughes, sprawled face down on the road, and befriended him. A jury threw out that will; Dummar ended up with nothing except screen immortality in the Jonathan Demme film ''Melvin and Howard.'' Five years later, a Los Angeles legal secretary found another purported will, which just happened to leave one-fifth of the fortune to a dormant corporation she just happened to own. Large numbers of heretofore unknown Hughes children showed up. Two were black, though Hughes was a virulent racist; a third claimed to be issue of Hughes and Amelia Earhart.
13. The Secret Life of Howard Hughes (TIME magazine)
14. Who had a "relationship" with Howard Hughes?
15. The "Mormon Will" of Howard Hughes...should the gas-station attendant have gotten 1/16th of the Hughes fortune?
16. Hughes was at one time reputed to be the wealthiest man in the world and initially made his fortune in oil equipment, then getting involved in the movie business and gathering a huge number of assets until he withdrew from public view. The company was previously known as the Summa Corporation.
17. Hughes left no will, although several people brought what they said were wills to the court and were eventually rejected
18. It's hard to fathom why someone so rich would die without a will.  But who could have anticipated just how protracted, and how populated, the fight would be? It lasted 10 years, involved over a thousand players, generated countless headlines, a movie and millions in legal fees. It also brought forth a host of long-lost spouses, children and other relatives, plus assorted freeloaders and charlatans.
19. Everyone was convinced that Hughes had drafted a will -- indeed, many of them. And everyone was certain what it said: that his money was to go to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which already held his huge chunk of Hughes Aircraft stock. (The Institute was largely a subterfuge, one infinitesimal step for science, one giant leap for tax avoidance.) So they searched Hughes's office in Los Angeles. They called every bank where Hughes had ever done business. They talked to his every lawyer, or that lawyer's heirs or partners. They canvassed his employees. They wrote to every hotel in which he'd ever holed up. They placed classifieds in 40 newspapers. And they consulted a psychic, who promised to divine the will's whereabouts by pondering a pair of Hughes's shoes. (He saw nothing, perhaps because Hughes, a precursor of Vincent Gigante, otherwise known as the Chin, preferred battered old slippers.) Hughes had let it be known, emphatically and profanely, that he didn't want his relatives to have a dime. But with no will, his next of kin surfaced, organized themselves and apportioned the phantom loot.
20. Howard Hughes:  Died in 1976, owning an estate worth more than $1 billion
21. Unlike natural, adopted or even illegitimate children, stepchildren have no immediate inheritance rights to their stepfather or mother's assets unless they are specified in a will (England site, but also the "law" in Missouri)
    • If there is a bloodline between parent and child, then without a will, a portion of the inheritance will still pass to them, depending on the size of the family.
22. In the 1977 United States Supreme Court case of Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U.S. 726 (1977) , the Court held that marital and non-marital children must be treated the same when determining heirs under intestacy statutes. 
23. Children from Alternative Reproductive Techniques:  Generally, the donor of the sperm or egg is not considered as a parent and the birth mother is deemed to be the mother.  For the child to have a father, the father must be married to the mother and the father must (1) provide the sperm, (2) consent in a record signed by both husband and wife to the assisted reproduction, or (3) openly treat the child as a child.
24. Step-Children:  A stepchild is a child of a person’s spouse who is not a biological or adopted child of the person.  Stepchildren may not inherit from their stepparents under Texas law.
25. Survival and Intestacy:  A survival period of 120 hours (5 days).  If a person survives the decedent but dies prior to the expiration of the survival period, the property passes as if the person had actually predeceased the decedent.  See Missouri statutes, Chapter 474.010
26. Missouri and Collaterals of Half Blood:  When the inheritance is directed to pass to the ascending and collateral kindred of the intestate, if part of the collaterals is of the whole blood of the intestate, and the other part of the half blood only, those of the half blood shall inherit only half as much as those of the whole blood; but if all collaterals are of the half blood, they shall have whole portions, only giving to the ascendants double portions.
27. Missouri Statute, Chapter 474.060:  
    1. If, for purposes of intestate succession, a relationship of parent and child must be established to determine succession by, through, or from a person, an adopted person is the child of an adopting parent and not of the natural parents, except that adoption of a child by the spouse of a natural parent has no effect on the relationship between the child and such natural parent.

    2. In cases not covered by subsection 1 herein, a person born out of wedlock is a child of the mother. That person is also a child of the father, if either of the following occur:

    (1) The natural parents participated in a marriage ceremony before or after the birth of the child, even though the attempted marriage is void;

    (2) The paternity is established by an adjudication before the death of the father, or is established thereafter by clear and convincing proof, except that the paternity established under this subdivision (2) is ineffective to qualify the father or his kindred to inherit from or through the child, unless the father has openly treated the child as his, and has not refused to support the child.

28. Report Targets Costs of Factory Farming (Washington Post, April 30, 2008)
    • Factory farming takes a big, hidden toll on human health and the environment, is undermining rural America's economic stability and fails to provide the humane treatment of livestock increasingly demanded by American consumers, concludes an independent, 2 1/2 -year analysis that calls for major changes in the way corporate agriculture produces meat, milk and eggs.
    • The report released yesterday, sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, finds that the "economies of scale" used to justify factory farming practices are largely an illusion, perpetuated by a failure to account for associated costs.
    • Among those costs are human illnesses caused by drug-resistant bacteria associated with the rampant use of antibiotics on feedlots and the degradation of land, water and air quality caused by animal waste too intensely concentrated to be neutralized by natural processes.
    • In the end, however, even industry representatives on the panel agreed to such controversial recommendations as a ban on the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in farm animals -- a huge hit against veterinary pharmaceutical companies -- a phaseout of all intensive confinement systems that prevent the free movement of farm animals, and more vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws in the increasingly consolidated agricultural arena.
    • "At the end of his second term, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about the dangers of the military-industrial complex -- an unhealthy alliance between the defense industry, the Pentagon, and their friends on Capitol Hill," wrote Robert P. Martin, executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which wrote the report. "Now the agro-industrial complex -- an alliance of agricultural commodity groups, scientists at academic institutions who are paid by the industry, and their friends on Capitol Hill -- is a concern in animal food production in the 21st century."
    • "At the end of his second term, President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about the dangers of the military-industrial complex -- an unhealthy alliance between the defense industry, the Pentagon, and their friends on Capitol Hill," wrote Robert P. Martin, executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which wrote the report. "Now the agro-industrial complex -- an alliance of agricultural commodity groups, scientists at academic institutions who are paid by the industry, and their friends on Capitol Hill -- is a concern in animal food production in the 21st century."
    • But the system has brought unintended consequences. With thousands of animals kept in close quarters, diseases spread quickly. To prevent some of those outbreaks -- and to spur faster growth -- factory farms routinely treat animals with antibiotics, speeding the development of drug-resistant bacteria and in some cases rendering important medications less effective in people.
    • The Pew report also calls for tighter regulation of factory farm waste, finding that toxic gases and dust from animal waste are making CAFO workers and neighbors ill.
    • The report also calls for implementation of a long-delayed national tracking system that would allow trace-back of diseased animals within 48 hours after a human outbreak of food-borne disease. And it calls for an end to forced feeding of poultry to produce foie gras, a delicacy that Blackwell described unpalatably as "diseased liver."
29. Siphoning Off Corn To Fuel Our Cars/SUVs (Washington Post, April 30, 2008)
    • This year, about a quarter of U.S. corn will go to feeding ethanol plants instead of poultry or livestock.
    • People who use corn to feed cattle, hogs and chickens are being squeezed by high corn prices. On Monday, Tyson Foods reported its first loss in six quarters and said that its corn and soybean costs would increase by $600 million this year. Those who are able, such as egg producers, are passing those high corn costs along to consumers. The wholesale price of eggs in the first quarter soared 40 percent from a year earlier, according to the Agriculture Department. Meanwhile, retail prices of countless food items, from cereal to sodas to salad dressing, are being nudged upward by more expensive ingredients such as corn syrup and cornstarch.
    • Although ethanol was once promoted as a way to slow climate change, a study published in Science magazine Feb. 29 concluded that greenhouse-gas emissions from corn and even cellulosic ethanol "exceed or match those from fossil fuels and therefore produce no greenhouse benefits." By encouraging an expansion of acreage, the study added, the use of U.S. cropland for ethanol could make climate conditions dramatically worse. And the runoff from increased use of fertilizers on expanded acreage would compound damage to waterways all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.
    • No place demonstrates the competing demands on corn better than Iowa, one of the two biggest corn-exporting states. Iowa is home to 28 ethanol plants, which consume more than a quarter of its corn crop; two dozen others are under construction or in planning stages.
    • In 2007, U.S. acreage devoted to corn hit a record 93.6 million acres, up 20 percent from the year before. Farmers are expected to plant a little less than that this year.
30.  

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