{"id":24969,"date":"2019-02-14T09:57:03","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24969"},"modified":"2019-02-14T09:57:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T15:57:03","slug":"expanded-right-to-farm-protections-considered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24969","title":{"rendered":"Expanded right-to-farm protections considered"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Agriculture Committee heard testimony Feb. 12 on a bill that would expand legal protections for agricultural producers under the state\u2019s 1982 Right to Farm Act.

\"Sen.
Sen. Dan Hughes<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n

Under the act, a farm or public grain warehouse\u2014a grain elevator or receptacle in which grain is held for longer than 10 days\u2014cannot be found to be a public or private nuisance if it existed before a change in the land use or occupancy of land in its locality and would not have been a nuisance before the change. <\/p>\n

LB227, sponsored by Venango Sen. Dan Hughes, would extend that protection to a farm or public grain warehouse if there is \u201cno significant change\u201d in the type of operation and if the farm or warehouse has been in operation for at least one year and was not a nuisance at the time it began.<\/p>\n

A significant change would not include the conversion of one type of farm or public grain warehouse to another; a change in ownership or size of the operation; the enrollment, reduction or cessation of participation of the farm or public grain warehouse in a government program; or the operation\u2019s adoption of new technology. <\/p>\n

Additionally, a farm or public grain warehouse could not be found to be a nuisance if \u201creasonable techniques\u201d are used to keep dust, noise, insects and odors at a minimum and the farm or public grain warehouse complies with applicable laws and regulations, including the zoning regulations of a local governing body. <\/p>\n

As the state\u2019s population becomes farther removed from farm life, it grows less tolerant of the \u201cdirty, smelly, sometimes not very pleasant\u201d agriculture industry, Hughes said. LB227 would ensure that farmers would not be vulnerable to nuisance lawsuits as long as they operate within zoning laws and state environmental quality regulations, he said.<\/p>\n

Jacob Mayer testified in support of the bill on behalf of a group of seven agriculture organizations. The Right to Farm Act protects producers against nuisance liability in instances when residential occupants come to a preexisting agricultural operation, he said, but courts have ruled that any change to an operation itself, no matter how minor, voids those protections. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis gap in the law has had a deterring effect on Nebraska\u2019s agricultural industry, stagnating growth in rural communities and stoking resentment among neighbors,\u201d Mayer said.<\/p>\n

Kristi Block, executive vice president of the Nebraska Grain and Feed Association, also testified in support. She said grain elevators use an array of technologies and practices to mitigate noise and dust. Expanded legal protections under LB227 would encourage public grain warehouses and other agricultural businesses to adopt new technologies that increase safety and efficiency, Block said.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Leo, an environmental lawyer and consultant in Lincoln, testified in opposition to the bill on behalf of Nebraska Interfaith Power and Light. He said LB227 would deprive a property owner of the right to sue when a farming operation undergoes a significant change affecting an owner\u2019s enjoyment of his or her property. The changes the bill would deem not significant seem to be the opposite, Leo added. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I can\u2019t imagine what could be more significant than a change in the ownership or size \u2026 of a farm or public grain warehouse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Anthony Schutz, a professor at the Nebraska College of Law, gave neutral testimony on the bill on his own behalf. He said nuisance lawsuits act as a \u201cbackdrop\u201d that property owners can use to protect themselves in instances when a regulatory authority cannot consider or predict a farming operation\u2019s impact on neighbors. <\/p>\n

Schutz said LB227 as written would make it impossible to make such a claim against an existing farming operation.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bill. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Agriculture Committee heard testimony Feb. 12 on a bill that would expand legal protections for agricultural producers under the state\u2019s 1982 Right to Farm Act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-24969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-sen-dan-hughes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24969"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24972,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24969\/revisions\/24972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}