Farmer Gets Fined $2.8 Million for Plowing His Own Land

It’s important to protect the natural beauty and resources of our country. We get that. The snag is that human civilization, at least at the level of sophistication we have achieved and that people demand, consumes some of those resources. So there will be conflicts.

The environmentalist movement has become so radicalized that they’ve diminished the importance of human life and routine human pursuits in their single-minded obsession with the welfare of every single species of animal life. It creates very weird and absolutely appalling results.

A farmer faces trial in federal court this summer and a $2.8 million fine for failing to get a permit to plow his field and plant wheat in Tehama County.

A lawyer for Duarte Nursery said the case is important because it could set a precedent requiring other farmers to obtain costly, time-consuming permits just to plow their fields.

“The case is the first time that we’re aware of that says you need to get a (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) permit to plow to grow crops,” said Anthony Francois, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation.

“We’re not going to produce much food under those kinds of regulations,” he said.

What makes this whole affair even more offensive is that this farmer made a sincere attempt, at his own expense, to follow what some might consider oppressive regulations.

The case began in 2012 when John Duarte, who owns Duarte Nursery near Modesto, bought 450 acres south of Red Bluff at Paskenta Road and Dusty Way west of Interstate 5.

According to Francois and court documents, Duarte planned to grow wheat there.

Because the property has numerous swales and wetlands, Duarte hired a consulting firm to map out areas on the property that were not to be plowed because they were part of the drainage for Coyote and Oat creeks and were considered “waters of the United States.”

Francois conceded that some of the wetlands were plowed, but they were not significantly damaged. He said the ground was plowed to a depth of 4 inches to 7 inches.

The Army did not claim Duarte violated the Endangered Species Act by destroying fairy shrimp or their habitat, Francois said.

Here we go again with placing the importance of some particular species of shrimp above the importance of growing food for human consumption.

The wheat was planted but not harvested because in February 2013 the Army Corps of Engineers and the California Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board issued orders to stop work at the site because Duarte had violated the Clean Water Act by not obtaining a permit to discharge dredged or fill material into seasonal wetlands considered waters of the United States.

We could stop here. This is ridiculous. You would think this farmer was spreading hazardous chemicals or radioactive waste. He’s moving soil, which is a fairly common part of farming.

Due to the fact that the case has not been resolved, there is trouble getting comment from the government.

However, documents filed in court explain some of the rationale behind the government’s case.

“Even under the farming exemption, a discharge of dredged or fill material incidental to the farming activities that impairs the flow of the waters of the United States still requires a permit, because it changes the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters,” the U.S. Attorney said in court filings.

What a bunch of nonsense. With decisions such as these, why would someone wish to undertake the already risky business of farming?

Perhaps what these environmentalists and their government allies really want is for the government to take over farming, sort of like the system that existed in the Soviet Union. And we all know how that turned out.

A report from when the battle began:

Source: Record Searchlight