Right to Farm = Right to Pollute
Marty over at the the Big Eastern has an article up about Code 32-30-6-9, Indiana’s nuisance statute. Marty notes the 2005 alteration to provide protection for farm operators who take farm property and put in a CAFO. The 2005 amendments effectively say that installing a CAFO in not a significant change, and the neighbors to the CAFO will not be permitted to bring suit. Marty’s take:
I’m not opposed to ‘right-to-farm’ legislation that doesn’t unduly erode common law property rights. The concept that one can’t complain when one moves to a nuisance has long been recognized. Therefore codifying that concept to protect farmers engaged in conventional agriculture from nuisance lawsuits is reasonable. However, the 2005 change went beyond that, granting to CAFO operations an easement to damage their neighbors property. No reasonable person could honestly say a CAFO isn’t a significant change from a bean field in terms of its impact on neighboring properties.
Marty also has an update on legislative activities surrounding the CAFO issue.
CAFO’s seem to be coming to the forefront of discussion, at least is has made the mainstream blogs: hBig Factory Pig Farms are Some of America’s Wortse Polluters on boingboing.
