The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) and other farm organizations last week filed an appeal on a recent court decision that upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to impose mandatory numeric limits on nutrient loadings to limit nutrient loss in the 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay watershed.

The Chesapeake Bay case is being closely watched for indications on how the EPA will handle nutrient issues surrounding water quality and Gulf of Mexico hypoxia in the much-larger Mississippi River Valley, ...