For decades, I have been a Georgia farmer, both as a cattle farmer and as a tree farmer in middle and southwest Georgia.  For generations, my family has served the good farmers and rural landowners of middle and southwest Georgia.  In fact, Crisp County is named after my great-great-grandfather, Charles F. Crisp, a Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and my great-grandfather was a local judge and farmer; and my grandfather was solicitor general.  As a Crisp and a farmer, I feel compelled to follow in my ancestors’ footsteps and speak out against House Bill 545, a bill which the State Senate will vote on very soon and which, despite being pushed by Georgia Farm Bureau, is actually bad for my fellow farmers and rural landowners. 

HB 545 will weaken the current Right to Farm Law, which does a fine job protecting farmers, while also taking away property rights that Georgia farmers and rural landowners have had since before the time of my great-great-grandfather.  For more than 150 years, existing farmers and rural landowners have had the right to bring a case to stop a nuisance created by a big agricultural operation that moves next door and seriously damages their properties or quality of life within 4 years of the damage.  HB 545 throws out this ancient property right by taking away the right to stop the nuisance if it does not start within 2 years of the operation moving in, no matter how much damage the operation eventually causes.  For example, when a big hog or cattle waste lagoon operation moves in and after a few years starts giving off noxious odors, swarms of flies, and polluted water, the existing farmers and rural will lose their best and ancient right to stop the nuisance.

 In pushing this bill, Georgia Farm Bureau is siding with big agricultural corporations like big hog and cattle waste lagoon operators, while forgetting about the local farmers and rural landowners that built Farm Bureau.  HB 545 gives these big corporations the “Right to Harm” small or existing farmers and rural landowners throughout Georgia.  The Constitution of the State of Georgia states that it is the “paramount duty” of the legislature to impartially protect all citizens and property owners.  HB 545 would be a dereliction of this duty because it favors the rights of big agricultural corporations at the expense of small or existing farmers and rural landowners.  

Jenny Crisp

Lee County, Ga.

The Georgia House of Representatives passed House Bill 545, an update to the Right to Farm Act, last year. The state Senate took up the bill on Friday but tabled it. The Observer received this letter and one in support of the bill by email within minutes of one another on Thursday afternoon. Click the link below to read the other letter, and follow progress on HB545 here.