PFA Supports Farm Legal Cases CAMPHILL Since many of the decisions that affect fanners are now finalized in the courts rather than in the state legislature, the Pennsylvania Farmers Association has established a legal defense fund. This fund was mandated by the delegate body at the 1984 annual meeting. Kent Shelhamer, chairman of the PFA legal fund board of directors and Steve Crawford, PFA director of employer programs, told Lan caster Farming this week that farmers have come to expect the PFA’s work with the legislature to be successful. But now the legislative branch of government is not our only problem. The courts have suddenly become involved. They are rewriting the in terpretation of the laws. We are in a new ballpark. While many court cases in volving farmers can impact upon the entire agricultural community, they always start with the in dividual farmer. Unfortunately more often than not individuals do not have the financial resources to get the legal representation they really need. As it stands now in dividual farmers are getting caught up in a system where the justice they get is the justice they can afford. We sometimes forget that we have three branches of govern ment, the legislative, executive and judicial branch. PFA banded together to collectively effect legislature in favor of farmers back in the 19505. But we are in danger of losing ground we have gained over the past 36 years, because now the best place to instigate change is in our court system. Often farmers are forced into legal problems through no fault of their own. Typical examples of this kind of litigation would be en vironmental cases, migrant labor cases, or real estate reassessment. We are now seeing individual judges putting more strict regulations on farmers than are called for in the Department of Environmental Resources. In Northampton County a case about application of sludge is still being processed. Here the judge im possed standards on a farmer much more strict than DER standards. The judge did this based on the complaints of neighbors. In North Carolina reassessment took place and agriculture didn’t fair well at all. The legal fund of the North Carolina Farm Bureau stepped in and litigated that case. They spent almost all of their money, $40,000 to $50,000. But they won the case and saved the ag industry about $4O million. Shelhamer and Crawford both agreed that when you get into court, it’s different than working with the legislature. In the legislature you have some friends. But when you’re in court you never know how it’s coming down. You have much less influence in the courts than in the legislature. “With a legal fund, we are able to get involved in several different ways,” Shelhamer said. ‘‘We can give an outright cash support to farmers in court to help with legal fees Or we can help farmers get proper legal representation. Or we can file a legal brief as a friend of the court.” Farmers across Pennsylvania now have the opportunity to help develop a fund to protect rights and fight legal battles that will affect all of agriculture. The driving principle behind the PFA legal fund is simple. Utilize the collective strength of the agricultural community to come to the aid of the individual farmer. The fund is controlled by a volunteer board of directors It is a feature of PFA But it is not run by PFA Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 30,1986-A39
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