Endless Lawsuits

 Agricultural law. That would be a great major at some law school because it appears that ranchers, farmers and processors are all surrounded….by lawyers. I’m David Sparks and I’ll be right back to file a lawsuit…I mean report. Everyday, I receive an e-mail from the Idaho Farm Bureau entitled Hot Topics. These are stories about agriculture across a very broad range of topics, from growers concerns, to technology, to scientific reports…you name it…if it’s in the world of agriculture and it’s interesting, I see it. But in my opinion, something very ominous is going on. A recent Hot Topics e-mail covered 6 stories and 5 of them were about legal challenges: The sage grouse is not the spotted owl; House Democrats challenge EPA on greenhouse gases; Hearings will discuss setback rules on CAFO waste;

Proposed chicken, egg processing plants would bring  controversy to Minidoka; Suit seeks to bar genetically modified sugar beets.

 So there’s a tidal wave of anti-ag litigation going on that The Idaho Farm Bureau’s Rangeland Specialist Wally Butler does not see as being reflective of the public opinion: “We’re finding that there’s a huge amount of the public that sees the rest of the story and is in agreement with what our cause is.” Meaning that if the general public agrees that agriculture is a good thing, we need to band together and shout that message loudly. Agtivism now!