A3O-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 7, 2002
SB 1413 Expires, Dialogue Continues
(Continued from Page A 1)
Reintroducing a similar bill in
the next legislative session in Jan
uary might not be the best solu
tion for agribusinesses and pro
ducers seeking to operate large
scale facilities in the state,
according to Van Blarcom.
“The ag community needs a
solution to this problem, and it
may not be amending the Right
to Farm Act,” she said.
In the future, supporters of the
bill might decide to approach the
issue from a local zoning and
comprehensive planning view
point rather than introducing an
other state bill. Van Blarcom
said.
SB 1413 expired Nov. 27 after
an amended version passed the
Senate by a vote of 45-3, but
stalled in the House before the
session adjourned in the wee
hours of Thanksgiving morning.
The amended version contained
“essentially the same language”
as SB 1413, but eliminated refer
ences to the Right to Farm Act,
Van Blarcom said.
At the heart of the bill was lan
guage which would allow farmers
to be reimbursed for legal fees
when bringing lawsuits against
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According to Jayanna Kopp-
Yeakle, PFB communications
specialist, a new bill similar to SB
1413 will likely be introduced
during next year's legislative ses
sion.
“Obviously, this issue isn't
going to go away,” Kopp-Yeakle
said. “We’re discussing all that
happened during this legislative
session. We expect a new bill to
be introduced.”
Brian Snyder, executive direc
tor for the Pennsylvania Associa
tion for Sustainable Agriculture
(PASA) and SB 1413 opponent,
said one of the main reasons he
and other PASA members op
posed the bill was because it
sought to protect large-scale live
stock operations by intimidating
township officials. ‘ln our view,
the bill was all about intimida
tion,” Snyder said. “Our mem
bers are in favor of giving farm
ers freedom to farm, but are
careful of creating rifts. We’re
not technically against big farms.
Our main goal at this point is to
promote dialogue that would rep
resent all views of ag.
“One thing everybody would
agree on is that we want farmers
to have choices,” he said.
Snyder pointed out that during
the months following SB 1413’s
introduction, some state repre
sentatives learned that not every
one in the ag community was in
support of the bill.
“Every representative I talked
to over the year said they had no
idea that there were farmers in
the state who didn't agree with
the Farm Bureau's position," he
said.
Van Blarcom of PennAg said
that SB 1413 supported both
small and large farms and would
not have taken away local gov
ernment control.
“There's been a lot of negative
and misinformation about SB
1413,” Van Blarcom said.
According to Brenda Sham
baugh, legislative director for the
Pennsylvania State Grange, op
portunities in the farming indus
try have often been limited or
prohibited by local governments
discriminating against a particu
lar agricultural business.
“The bill was written to help
protect our farmers all farm
ers,” Shambaugh said. “From the
small family farm to the larger
operators, we must fight to pro
tect our state’s most important
commodity.”
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