Many
Virginians testified in Richmond in support of HB1430, The Right to Farm Act,
better known as the Boneta Bill, which passed the House of Delegates 77-22 in
February 2013 but was blocked by the Senate Agricultural Committee by a vote of
11-4. Delegate Scott Lingamfelter promised to reintroduce the bill next year.
Virginians
have vowed to continue the fight. Chairman Mike Thomas and his committee of 12
proposed a resolution on May 4, 2013 to be included and published on the
Republican Party of Virginia website with a link on the home page.
It
remains to be seen if any of the parties and members of Congress represent the
wishes of the majority of the people anymore. Would lawmakers continue to pass
laws just to protect the loudest minorities, the illegals, those on welfare,
and the elites in power?
The
Resolution calls on the Republican Party of Virginia to “support state
legislation and local ordinances consistent with each farmer’s right to
determine what best constitutes farming, farm life, the best uses of his/her
own farm land, respect for their neighbors,” market pay for their labor, and to
repeal state laws and ordinances inconsistent with the Resolution.
The
Governor and the General Assembly have a duty to advance legislation in 2014
that respects the rights of citizens to pursue their self-interests as
protected by the Constitution of the United States, the vision of the Founding
Fathers, and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Farmers
engage in more than just production agriculture, they have the right to
commerce, the right to enjoyment of their land, assembly on their property, the
right to exercise religious freedom on their lands, the right to grow, eat,
sell their locally produced foods without burdensome local and state government
regulations or dictates from environmental groups sponsored by international
groups and entities, including the United Nations ICLEI.
Government
should not use laws, regulations, zoning ordinances, or cumbersome and
expensive permits to violate or trespass on the farmers’ rights and freedom to
farm under the guise that they know what is best for farming in general or one
farmer in particular.
Government
agencies or subdivisions that violate farmers’ rights and trespass on their
property should be made accountable for their deeds. Americans should not be
treated as guilty until proven innocent while giving environmental groups
unlimited power without much redress for small farmers who do not have the
means to fight back and must shut down their farming operations and farm stores
as was the case of Martha Boneta in Virginia and many others across the
country.
Less
than three percent of American labor feeds 306 million Americans yet the
government is making it harder and harder for small farms to operate and bring
wholesome foods to the market. Why should farmers be subjected to “annual
property monitoring visits and inspections” by environmental groups funded by
U.N. Agenda 21 agencies and pursued by groups beholden to ICLEI and other
environmental councils who have no idea how their food gets to the table nor do
they care? Are “penny loafer farmers” and their horses the only Americans
protected under the law? Don’t real farmers deserve the same protection under the
supreme law that guarantees all Americans unalienable rights such as “life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”
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