Right to Farm Laws

Description:

Right-to-farm laws are designed to protect farm operators from nuisance complaints
directed at normal farm operations. Sec. 823.08, Wis. Stats. has language stating that an
agricultural use or change in use cannot be deemed a nuisance if it predates the
complainants' use of neighboring property and presents no "substantial threat to public
health or safety." If an agricultural use, or a change in such use such as an expansion,
occurs in an exclusive agricultural zoning district, a court may not substantially restrict
the activity unless it necessary to protect the public interest. Outside an exclusive
agricultural district, courts cannot close the operation unless it is a threat to public health,
may assess only nominal damages if the defendant was in the location prior to the
plaintiff, and must give the farm operator at least a year to modify any practices unless
found to be a substantial threat to public health. Litigation expenses are awarded to farm
operators who are sued but prevail in court.

Other States:

Right-to-farm laws exist in all 50 states and serve a similar purpose to that of the
Wisconsin law, although there are variations in the extent of protections offered. Most
limit private nuisance suits as well as the ability of local governments to declare
agricultural practices a nuisance. In 1998, part of the Iowa statute granting immunity
from nuisance suits was ruled unconstitutional by the Iowa Supreme Court and the U.S.
Supreme Court refused any further review of this decision. Unlike the Wisconsin statute,
this law granted immunity from nuisance to all farms in an "agricultural area" even if the
farm operation did not predate neighboring complainants. The New York right-to-farm
law was upheld by the N.Y. Supreme Court in May 1999, but in that case, nuisance
protection was not automatic based on location within an agricultural area, but was
reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Oregon's statute offers protection from both nuisance
and trespass, and applies even to farm operations that do not predate neighboring land
uses. It was upheld against challenge in 1993, and has not been tested since. Some state
courts have ruled that noises, odors or flies generated by farms can constitute trespass to
neighbors. The few subsequent citations of the 1998 Iowa case may be due to the basic
weakness of the legal arguments it rests on which equate an immunity form nuisance with
an implied easement over neighboring property. The ultimate logic of such a novel legal
interpretation could tend to throw all land use regulation into question. That case also
appears to confuse tort action with property interests. (Pearson, 48 Drake Law Review,
53 (1999))

Advantages:

• The statute can reduce the threat of nuisance lawsuits, and of land use conflicts over
farm use, particularly in exclusive agricultural zoning districts. This can aid in
maintaining farm productivity and income.

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• By reducing the stress on farm operators carrying out "normal" farm operations the
statute may help more farmers stay in farming.

Disadvantages:

• The right-to-farm statute in itself cannot prevent the conversion of farmland to non-
farm uses.

• Right-to-farm statutes do not protect farmers from trespass or vandalism by

neighbors or others in the community.

• Right-to-farm protection is not a substitute for action to prevent conflict generation

through having strong agricultural planning and zoning practices to keep industrial
and commercial farms widely separated from rural residential development zones.

• The extent of protections and impacts of right-to-farm laws for an agricultural use
may change if the property's zoning changes, i.e. it does not run with the land.

• Legal protections for farming are not a substitute for the value of a farmer developing
positive relationships with neighboring land owners and residents.

• Given recent court decisions in other states, some aspects of the Wisconsin right-to-
farm statute may be open to legal challenge.

• Right-to-farm laws need to be supplemented by local ordinances requiring notifying

of new residential owners in rural areas as to normal impacts of agricultural
operations.