Victims of the Federal Bootprint

Victims of the Federal Bootprint

Through no fault of their own, farmers, ranchers, and landholders are finding themselves jailed, fined, or otherwise penalized by government — with nothing they can do about it. ...
William F. Jasper

America’s farmers and ranchers, the people who grow the food that magically appears on our grocery store shelves, are under siege. Like swarms of locusts, federal regulators from the EPA, BLM, USFS, etc. are driving these hardworking producers who feed America into the ground. A relentless bombardment of threats, fines, regulatory takings, lawsuits, and other means of perpetual harassment is killing what remains of our family-owned farms. It is not only America’s food supply that is imperiled by this onslaught; equally important (if not more so) is the threat that these rogue federal regulators pose to justice, to the rule of law, to the very idea of limited government, and to the freedom of each and every one of us. The profiles of the victims provided here represent only a tiny sample of the thousands of our fellow citizens who have heroically fought, or are currently fighting, against a federal leviathan that is trampling their rights and taking their property.

John Duarte — Plow Your Field, Go to Jail

In December of 2012, John Duarte did what thousands of other farmers do: He planted wheat. Specifically, he planted wheat on 450 acres he owns in California’s central valley near Red Bluff, a couple hours north of Sacramento. Little did he know that this simple act would place him in jeopardy of fines as high as $50,000 per day and a possible prison sentence. Matthew Kelley, an employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, happened to drive by and take notice of the plowing activity on Duarte’s land in preparation for the planting. Kelley reported to his superiors that Duarte’s plowing operations were a “big violation” of the federal Clean Water Act, in that they were, allegedly, destroying a “wetland.”

The Clean Water Act authorizes the Corps of Engineers to regulate certain “discharges” to “waters of the United States.” The Corps has interpreted this to mean “wetlands” and virtually every mud puddle in the country. However, the act specifically exempts “normal farming activities” from the ban on discharging dredge and fill material and from the costly and burdensome permit requirements. There are good reasons for agricultural exemptions: Requiring farmers to spend, on average, two years and $270,000 to get a federal permit to plant and harvest crops would be a prescription for national starvation. But Kelley claimed that Duarte was plowing three feet deep, which constituted not normal plowing but “deep ripping,” which, Kelley said, was a “flagrant” violation. Based on Kelley’s report, the Corps issued a cease-and-desist order (CDO) to Duarte on February 23, 2013. Upon receiving the order, Duarte ceased operations on the parcel — and lost his wheat crop, a $50,000 investment, not including the profit he hoped to realize from the sale of the wheat. That’s not all: The acreage has remained fallow because the Corps insists that the stop order will remain in effect until Duarte goes through the long, costly process of obtaining a permit, which, legally, he doesn’t need in order to farm.

This fantastic article is for subscribers only.
Login
Lost Password?

JBS Member or ShopJBS.org Customer?

Sign in with your ShopJBS.org account username and password or use that login to subscribe.

The New American Digital Subscription The New American Digital Subscription Subscribe Now
Use code SUB25 at check out
  • 24 Issues Per Year
  • Digital Edition Access
  • Exclusive Subscriber Content
  • Audio provided for all articles
  • Unlimited access to past issues
  • Cancel anytime.
  • Renews automatically
The New American Print+Digital Subscription The New American Print+Digital Subscription Subscribe Now
Use code SUB25 at check out
  • 24 Issues Per Year
  • Print edition delivery (USA)
    *Available Outside USA
  • Digital Edition Access
  • Exclusive Subscriber Content
  • Audio provided for all articles
  • Unlimited access to past issues
  • Cancel anytime.
  • Renews automatically