McCONNELLSBURG—A court case expected to play a major role in determining the nature of agriculture in Pennsylvania has cost nearly a quarter million dollars so far.
Needmore farmers Ricky Leese and Ralph Swope in November 2001 challenged three Belfast Township ordinances. They claim the illegal regulations prevent them from expanding their farms with the help of an outside corporation.
Others claim the bigger concentrated livestock farms, known as factory farms, will pose environmental and health risks.
Belfast's ordinances limit farming to families and family-owned corporations, regulate the pumping of large amounts of groundwater and prohibit corporations that have violated environmental laws more than three times from doing business in the township.
The case is attracting big money from agribusiness, and interest from two other Fulton County townships that passed similar ordinances.
Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey, director of governmental affairs for PennAg Industries, recently told a gathering of dairy producers from across the state: "We're a year and a half into it. Our legal bills are ($226,000). We don't even have a result yet."
Belfast Township has legal fees of $12,100, according to township solicitor Carlton Anne Cook Walker. Arnold and Porter, a Washington, D.C., law firm, is not charging for its time, but the township pays for mileage and copies of documents.
The two sides have been sparring for 21 months:
County Court Judge John R. Walker in April denied Belfast Township's request that Judge Carol Van Horn hear the case.
The two sides came to an agreement in June that farming contracts and information about taxes and business will be sealed and only be used during the trial and appeals. The order specifies further that "under no circumstances shall confidential information be disclosed to Thomas A. Linzey, the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund or any other person associated with an environmental or citizen group. "
Linzey, staff attorney for the Defense Find, drafted model ordinances which Belfast and other townships modified before passing.
Linzey said the issues could have cost the farmers less than $10,000 to resolve in court.
"What they care about is setting a precedent about corporate farming," Linzey said. "Two hundred and twenty thousand dollars in ridiculous. That's just rape. This doesn't even count the appeals. There's going to be at least two appeals."
"There are so many variables," Carlton Walker said. "Anybody who tells you how long it's going to take is lying to you or to himself."
PennAg's fund-raising drive has been able to pay the bill so far, according to Van Blarcom-Lackey.
"(PennAg is) not paying for this lawsuit," she said. "We're organizing, trying to raise funds."
Farmers, food processors, chambers of commerce and swine, poultry, dairy and feed organizations -- a total of 43 -- have contributed, she said.
"Obviously they all have a stake in this," she said. "If they can't farm, they can't stay in business."
Meat packers and grain mills are talking about leaving the state for New York and Ohio, Van Blarcom-Lackey said.
"The future of agriculture in Pennsylvania is at stake," she said. "Farmers and agribusinesses are (saying they're thinking about) leaving Pennsylvania because they can't do business."
Concentrated livestock farms, or factory farms, are typically poultry or pig operations where animals in close quarters produce large amounts of manure. The farmer usually owns the land, and cares for animals that are owned by the same corporation that supplies the feed.
Some states in the Midwest have outlawed corporate-owned farms.
"Whether Pennsylvania embraces the factory farm model of agriculture will determine the fate of farmers in Pennsylvania," said Daniel E. Brannen Jr., a attorney representing Thompson and Licking Creek townships. "Factory farms have been eliminating farmers from the rural landscape."
The industrialization of agriculture will leave farmers to toil away in factories just as artisans and craftsmen did after the industrialization of their trades, according to Brannen.
"Turning farmers into factory workers is the first step in sending farming overseas," Brannen said. "That's the next logical step for industrial agriculture. We won't be producing food here."
Brannen has asked the court to allow Thompson and Licking Creek townships to join the case. Thompson has three similar ordinances. Licking Creek has two. Formerly practicing law in Centre County, Brannen has a practice in Santa Fe, N.M.
"The people of Belfast Township, through their elected representatives, have decided they don't want corporations to control farming in their township," Brannen said. "Why should corporations be able to tell the people and the elected officials in Belfast Township that they can't make that decision?"
"I think there's a big difference between agriculture and agribusiness, just as there's a big difference between a family farm and an industrial complex," Carlton Walker said.
Township supervisors are looking out for current and future township residents and visitors, she said.
"We consider it a health and safety issue and it's vitally important," Carlton Walker said.
Jim Hook can be reached at 262-4759, or jhook@pubop.com
source: http://www.publicopiniononline.com/news/stories/20030830/localnews/158260.html 30aug03
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