D4—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, July 18,1981
Getting along with
Fanners are doing some truly
innovative things to try to get
along with their nonfarm neigh
bors. As more and more city folk
seek the good life in rural America,
farmers have been forced to make
adjustments.
Some have tried standing their
ground, literally, by saying, “We
were here first and we intend to
farm the way we always farmed.”
To their chagrin, many of these
chaps have been told by the courts
that it just isn’t so.
There are certain nghts that
farmers have, but more and more
they’re finding that nonfarm rural
residents have rights also. And
they also have the know-how and
political power to cause some real
problems. There have been in
stances in nearby states where
farming operations have actually
been closed down by complaining
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Farm
Talk
Jerry Webb
nonfarm neighbors
neighbors, armed with proper
court injunctions.
Granted, those are extreme
cases, but they do happen. And
when they do it clouds all of
agriculture, leaving farmers to
wonder if they do in fact have the
right to farm.
In Pennsylvania, farm
organizations have pushed a nght
to-farm bill through the state
legislature that says any fanner
who has been farming a piece of
ground for at least three years can
continue as long as he isn’t ac
tually endangering anyone’s
health or breaking any other laws.
The real intent of the bill is to stop
the nuisance kinds of legal actions
that continue to harass farmers.
Some Pennsylvania farmers
with their backs to the wall have
had to come up with some fairly
creative solutions to their farm
nuisance problems. Perhaps the
most creative comes from a
Lancaster County farmer who was
in trouble for spreading manure.
This is a true story told to me
firsthand recently at a Farm-City
Seminar in Harrisburg
It seems this Pennsylvania
Dutch gentleman had been
operating a dairy farm for years.
Recently he got the opportunity to
buy a neighboring farm, but he
only wanted the land so he let
someone else purchase an old
farmhouse on the property.
As luck would have it, some city
dwellers came out and bought the
house, fixed it up, and then set
about changing the agricultural
practices of the neighborhood
They objected to the manure
handling mess so strongly that the
wife got herself elected to the
township planning commission and
then launched a one person
campaign to stop the farmer from
spreading manure on the ground
that surrounded her home.
She was about to succeed with
her effort when the farmer hit upon
a plan. It seems that the township
was authorized one trailer park in
its zoning plans, and at that pomt
there were none. So the tanner
contacted his lawyer and an
engineer, and they drew up plans
for a trailer park on the land
surrounding that nice lady’s
» I'M
Then at me proper township
meeting, the lawyer asked a few
questions and was assured that
indeed the township was allowed to
have a trailer park. That’s when he
started unrolling his blueprints.
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Tbrrf r( was for everyone to see A
nice big mobile home park,
complete with streets, sewers, and
places for lots and lots of those
movable dwellings. And right in
the middle, that lovely rural
residence
The commission had no choice
but to approve the plan, but you
can bet the lady wasted no time
meeting with the farmer to discuss
his intentions and to assure him
that she would much rather have
him spreading manure around her
property than installing mobile
homes
So they compromised. He moved
in one mobile home for one of his
farm workers and the rural
residents stopped worrying about
his manure handling techniques.
We can only assume that they will
all live happily ever after in that
thriving farm community.
Not every farmer can solve his
farm-city problems in such a
creative way. But there are other
things that can be done For
example, the Morrison Pork Unit
in Salma, Kansas, uses personal
contacts with its urban neighbors
to promote better understanding
This operation, which markets
36,000 hogs a year, conducts guided
tours for city folks who are curious
about what’s going on School
groups are especially welcomed
and seem to appreciate this look at
modern agriculture.
A Delavan, Illinois farmer
operates right next door to the city
park and so to keep his neighbors
pleased with his 800-acre corn and
hog farm, he worries about things
like wind direction when he’s
manure and he works
around major events going on in
the park. Most of the manure is
knifed into the soil, but in the
winter when the ground is frozen
and this can’t be done, he spreads a
on fields fartherest away from
town And on an even more
positive note, during special
holidays he hands out packages of
whole hog sausage, and even
plants sweet com for people who
don’t have garden space.
In all of these instances it might
have been easier for the farmers to
simply insist that they were there
first and that if the city folk don’t
like it, they could move. After all,
these are strong agricultural areas
where such farming operations are
traditional and anybody living
near them should expect such
nuisances. But that’s just begging
for trouble.
Any fanner with the least bit of
thoughtfulness knows that a family
reunion in the city park won’t
benefit from a light mist of liquid
manure. And he should also know
that a community that gets mad
enough can generate a lot of wrath
when it’s aimed at a farmer who’s
causing problems.
Right-to-farm legislation is on
the books in many states, but it
seems to me far better to solve
rural-urban problems in other
ways. No doubt some farmers need
to clean up their acts; and some
urbanites need to realize that, if
they’re going to live in the country,
it won’t be the same as downtown.
There should be give and taken on
both sides and there’s surely room
for both farm and nonfarm folks in
rural America.
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RD2, Ephrata, PA
717-859-1127