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Title details for Empty Fields, Empty Promises by Loka Ashwood - Available

Empty Fields, Empty Promises

A State-by-State Guide to Understanding and Transforming the Right to Farm

by Loka Ashwood
Aimee Imlay
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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.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Rural Studies Series

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 14, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781469674605

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781469674605
      • File size: 2499 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      November 1, 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

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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