Michigan Residents No Longer Able to Farm in Own Backyards

One would imagine that keeping small livestock on a small farm is well within their God given rights, but somewhat recently, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development voted to strip families of the right to feed themselves. Small farmers and backyard food growers will have to repeal the urban farm attack that once protected them under the Right to Farm Act.

Many small farms will be shut down due to this police-state mentality. The Right to Farm Act previously said that local ordinances could not prohibit a homeowner’s right to keep small livestock. This right was also protected through the Michigan’s Generally Accepted Agriculture Management Practices (GAAMP).

Now, these rules have been thrown out, and homes that are located within 1/8 of a mile proximity to 13 neighboring homes, or that are 250-feet away from a single neighboring home, can not expect protection under the Right to Farm Act.

This is clearly an act of war by Big Ag to take the rights of small farmers away – making US citizens solely reliant on corporate food monopolies who would sell us contaminated chicken and hormone-pumped beef, GMO produce, and pesticide and herbicide-laden fruit and vegetables.

One small farmer, Michelle Regalado Deatrick, told MLive that half of her 80-acre farm may be zoned out of use as it falls into “Category 3,” which is described as “generally not suitable for livestock production facilities.”

Kim White, who raises chickens and rabbits, said:

“They don’t want us little guys feeding ourselves. They want us to go all to the big farms. They want to do away with small farms and I believe that is what’s motivating it.”

Read: Couple Threatened with $500 Fine for Growing Vegetable Garden

This is just another attempt for corporate farming to destroy millennia-old farming practices passed from grandfather to granddaughter, from Texas to Michigan, California to Maine. Small farms would completely eradicate many of the problems currently associated with large monocrop farming practices, including:

• The clear-cutting of over 260 million acres of U.S. forests to create feed for livestock.

• The sustained monopolies over our food supply. Now just 10 companies control over 70% of all seed sold in the world (Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, and DuPont are among them.)

• The need for growing GMO corn and soy, 70% of which feeds Big Ag livestock.

• The waste of water – 2,400 gallons of clean water is needed to produce one pound of Big Ag meat.

• The destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, 2.9 million acres of which were destroyed to grow crops to make chicken feed.

• The elimination of 80% of ammonia-waste from Big Ag animal production. Atmospheric ammonia can disrupt aquatic ecosystems, ruin soil quality, damage crops, and jeopardize human health.