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Food Chain Radio Show #1209
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
United States Water Rights
Guest: Tony Francois, Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Two years ago, in Food Chain Radio #1111, we featured a story about a California farmer who was being threatened with a $40 million dollar liability for plowing his field.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Water Rights of the United States: Do farmers need government permission to plow their fields?
That farmer, John Duarte, eventually paid a fine of $1.1 million to the Environmental Protection Agency.
To discover why the federal government would be fining a farmer a million for plowing his field, we called on Tony Francois of the Pacific Legal Foundation, who was defending Duarte at the time.
Attorney Francois described how the Waters of the United States rule gave the Environmental Protection Agency jurisdiction over pollutants that might enter the waters of the United States.
Now, when you think of pollutants, you probably think of industrial solvents or sewage sludge. But to the EPA, pollutants also included the soil of farms.
Though the WOTUS rule has since been revised, farmer John Duarte’s neighbor, farmer Jack LaPant, is now facing millions in penalties from the EPA for… plowing his soil.
That government has been given so much control over a farmer’s soil leads us to ask…
Leave a comment below: Do farmers need government permission to plow their fields?
Nationally syndicated Food Chain Radio airs live Saturday mornings 9-10AM Pacific.
