Suburban life pitting farmers vs. neighbors

[Argee]

My warranty deed for my property contains the following clause:

"The above-described premises may be located within the vicinity of farmland or a farm operation. Generally accepted agricultural and management practices which may generate noise, dust, odors, and other associated conditions may be used and are protected by the Michigan Right to Farm Act."

I believe this clause and the Right to Farm Act gives the farmer some legal footing. I hope I never have to test it, but inasmuch as I will be raising pigs this year, it's nice to know I have it just in case I'm challenged.

[earthmother]

Yep- it's yuppies complaining again! This reminds me of living on Long Island. We had a famous fireworks factory there (Gruchi), and some idiot decided to put a housing development across the street. Of course, even bigger idiots bought these houses. About 25 years ago, there was an explosion at the fireworks factory that killed 3 family members. Of course there was damage at this development, such as broken windows, etc. The owners of these houses complained and WON!!! Now who in their right mind would move across the street from a business that has tons of gunpowder!!?? This is the same issue.If these people are so upset by having fly "poo-poo" on their deck- oh excuse me-Veranda- screen it in. This way you would have no flies or any other insect. The country has insects, whether there are cows or not. We don't have the car exhaust here to kill them. I wish this kind of people would just go away and hide under a rock somewhere.
Martha Steward does not live in the country- she's on Long Island and Connecticut. [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

Hey Hey [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] We finally agree earthmother. LOL

[Stoneheartfarm]

Actually, I remember 60 minutes doing a special on a Florida farmer who was fighting with the Golf Course that had been built next door (and apparently down wind). Naturally, the GC guys complained about the smell. So, the farmer began playing Country music real loud to keep his critters happy. (It's a "Country Club", right? [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] ) Never did find out how it ended. Anybody know?

Steve

[AndyF]

Here's another interesting article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0102/p14s01-lihc.html

Regarding the yuppie/farmer conflicts, it is unfortunate that these occur, but many of them are just natural consequences of a farmer selling off his frontage or changing his farming practices. If the frontage hadn't been sold and the township hadn't allowed residential construction the problem would not exist because the complainers wouldn't live there. Or, if the farmer had kept his dairy at 200 cows rather than expanding to 1,000 with a huge manure lagoon, or put in a pork or poultry CAFO the neighbors wouldn't be complaining because the smells and sounds from a general farm or smaller dairy are a lot less potent than an industrial scale one.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Encouraging residential development in a farming area or implementing industrial style and scale animal farming practices in an area with many non-farmers are recipes for confrontation and conflict.

What it all comes down to is greed. The local counties and state want more revenue from taxes. One of the best ways they do this is through property taxes. They take good farmland and set appraisal high because this is what the ground would make as developed ground. This forces up the taxes. The farmer complains and takes it before the board. Then the land is converted to residential use. Now the farmer sells the land for a huge profit, the land is developed, and now the county has a huge tax base. From 250 acres that was bringing in less than a $1000 a year in taxes they've just created 2,000,000 or better in property taxes.

Don't think this happens. Just come to where I live. It happened to the best farmground in this area and it's happening to some of my ground right now. If you don't want to sell they drive up the taxes. Then you still don't want to sell they take it anyway by domain laws. Not fair at all but it's happening. Awhile back I posted on this at TBN. They jacked my taxes way up on a 250 acre parcel. I took them to court and so they changed the ag to residential zoning. I pretty much am left with the choice of paying a huge tax bill or selling the ground. There were three developers at the county hearing that put in offers to the board for the property to determine it's value. I will probably wind up selling this ground and it will be turned into houses. It's going to make me a tremendous amount of money but it still doesn't make it right and I've got a pit in my stomach thinking about doing it. It's all greed pure and simple and that is why you are seeing the farmer and the farmland become an extinct breed.

The family farmer anymore is very rare. Most farming now is being done by big corporations and it will continue to be that way.

[Stoneheartfarm]

<font color="blue"> If you don't want to sell, they drive up the taxes </font color>

CBD,

That sounds familliar... but not from what is happening today. Didn't something similar happen in the 1800's? Water rights, railroad rights, something like that (I'm afraid my history is a bit rusty.) [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img]

Steve

[AndyF]

I'm sorry to hear that you are getting the short end of the stick regarding some land you would like to keep in production. It is unfortunate when local government is so short sighted. Too often the only recourse a person has is to vote with their feet and move. I remember reading about a Michigan Apple grower who had to sue his township to prevent forcible annexation of his orchards by a local town so that they could rezone his property residential and grow their community. After several years he finally won, but it almost bankrupted him.

I lived through what you are describing in, what for several years was the fastest growing city in Ohio. What had been a rural area when we purchased our 90 year old house on the edge of town in ten years was engulfed by golf course communities and SUVs. I sold, made a few dollars and am now in an agricultural area in upstate NY.

Unfortunately, even here the town government is on the "gotta increase the tax base" treadmill and encourages people to apply for variances so that they can set up their doublewide or build a home on 1-5 acres in the town's Agricultural Districts.

What amazes me about this is that for government as a whole, residential properties typically consume more in services than they pay in taxes. Without a substantial non-residential tax base, school taxes can quickly go through the roof.

[wingnut]

Richard,
back in Alberta ... the Provincial government solved that problem by passing a law to make it difficult and/or illegal to convert farmland to residential. This was because too much of that was happening and the less-shortsighted people in government realized that food had to come from somewhere (and was easier to grow/raise) on ag land than scrub land.
Heck, even if you want to sll of some land ... you can only subdivide one 5 acres parcel off your (can't remember if it's 1.4 section or larger) land.
Emininet Domain is the most abused and undemocratic law on the books. Right behind it is the law that allows police forces, courts and governments to profit from seizing the (presumed but unproven) proceeds of "crime".

[dsgsr]

What happened to my post?

David