Empty Fields, Empty Promises: A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm

by Loka Ashwood, Danielle Diamond, Allen Franco, Aimee Imlay, Lindsay Kuehn

Overview

The right to farm is essential to everyone's survival. Since the late 1970s, states across the nation have adopted so-called right-to-farm laws to limit nuisance suits loosely related to agriculture. But since their adoption, there has yet to be a comprehensive analysis of what these laws do and who they benefit. This book offers the first national analysis and guide to these laws. It reveals that they generally benefit the largest operators, like processing plants, while traditional farmers benefit the least. Disfavored most of all are those seeking to defend their homes and environment against multinational corporations that use right-to-farm laws to strip neighboring owners of their property rights. Through what the book calls the "midburden," right-to-farm laws dispossess the many in favor of the few, paving the path to rural poverty.

Empty Fields, Empty Promises summarizes every state's right-to-farm laws to help readers track and navigate their local and regional legal landscape. The book concludes by offering paths forward for a more distributed and democratic agrifood system that achieves agricultural, rural, and environmental justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469674612
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/26/2023
Series:	Rural Studies Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	248,561
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Loka Ashwood is associate professor of sociology at the University of Kentucky. Aimee Imlay is assistant professor of sociology at Mississippi State University. Lindsay Kuehn is a public defender in Ramsey County, Minnesota, and a staff attorney with the Farmers' Legal Action Group. Allen Franco is an assistant federal public defender for the districts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Danielle Diamond is a visiting fellow at the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law and Policy Program at Harvard Law School.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Empty Fields, Empty Promises challenges the popular notion that right-to-farm' laws benefit family-sized farming operations and protect their livelihoods. This innovative and thoughtful book makes an important contribution to the ongoing debate surrounding the efficacy of these laws and the impact they have on rural communities and family-sized farming operations."—Susan Schneider, University of Arkansas



While there is a dearth of material on agricultural law in general, no book tackles the complexities of right-to-farm laws in as much detail as this book. The authors provide a thorough analysis of the laws themselves and the intent behind them, as well as how these laws contribute to a variety of larger political projects. An essential contribution."—Rick Welsh, Syracuse University

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2023

The authors of this treatise, two sociologists and three legal experts, make an impressive argument regarding misguided farming laws in the United States. Analyzing "right to farm" statutes, enacted under the claim that they protect small family farms, the book demonstrates that large industrial farms are still winning. The first part of the book discusses the origin of the laws and shows how often big business wins by region. The laws' primary use has been to block public-nuisance suits, though the intent may have been to protect farmers from encroaching development. Instead, large operators, especially in states such as Indiana, where industrial hog companies are top producers, influence legislators and courts to rule in their favor. The second part analyzes the statutes and cases in each state. The only area of the country in which right-to-farm law prevails is the Northeast, with its relatively small farms, versus the Southeast, where industrial farms dominate. The authors blast federal policy for driving consolidation and promoting inequality, and they call for a "democratic tapestry for agriculture." VERDICT An academic yet accessible book that rural advocates and foes of inequality will appreciate.—Harry Charles

Library Journal