• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • Pearl Sutton
  • paul wheaton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Anne Miller
  • Nicole Alderman
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • Maieshe Ljin
  • Benjamin Dinkel
  • Jeremy VanGelder

Michigan Right to Farm gone now? Looking for more info

 
Posts: 128
Location: Detroit, Michigan
2
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I came across this article this morning -- http://www.inquisitr.com/1235774/michigan-loses-right-to-farm-this-week-a-farewell-to-backyard-chickens-and-beekeepers/ in which contains a link for this - http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/04/holda_change_in_rules_for_mich.html

It seems that there is some confusion.

We are preparing to move to SE Michigan with the plan of buying some acreage for a small homestead in the next few years. I'm posting here to find out if anyone has more solid info how these changes will affect homesteaders. TIA.

 
Posts: 54
Location: Michigan, zone 5
4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I just heard about this also, and I still have fire spewing from my ears. Once I finished planning my starvation campaign, I was able to calm down enough to talk to my brother who was able to clarify it a bit...
The way zoning works, usually, in Michigan, especially rural areas is that they won't bother you unless there is a complaint...so keeps your friends close and your enemies closer...bribe them with eggs, veggies...etc. and lay low. There is also the hold your ground act...look that one up
There are a few petitions floating around you can sign as well...
I would love to hear others input on this too...
 
Posts: 641
Location: Missoula Mt
45
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You just need to organize a protest. Get a dump truck full of cow manure and dump it right in front of the state capital!
 
Posts: 1670
Location: Fennville MI
83
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My wife and I also plan to relocate to SE Michigan and this new interpretation of the law appears to be a travesty, turning the meaning of the existing law 180 degrees.
It would take years and multiple court cases to really clarify the meaning, but my gut reaction is that it was done to please developers who want to get a foot in the door and then kick the farmers out. I also think big as supports it because it does not threaten them, but can put small farms that they are frightened of out of business.
I need to read the actual regulatory ruling and get past the press spin to try and understand it fully. But as I said, my gut feeling on it is very bad.
 
pollinator
Posts: 4154
Location: Northern New York Zone4-5 the OUTER 'RONDACs percip 36''
67
hugelkultur fungi books wofati solar woodworking
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
- there have to be a 1000 Petitions out there someone post the 1st link, Silly laws like this do get passed, and local neighbor hoods get together and ban
mailboxes and deny your right to dry, My rule is never live in a Town with a Stop Light, and never live in a house that you can't pee off of your
own back porch ! Big AL !
 
Jenna Sanders
Posts: 54
Location: Michigan, zone 5
4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/get-your-right-to-farm.fb46?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=10461674

This is petition my husband and I signed.
 
allen lumley
pollinator
Posts: 4154
Location: Northern New York Zone4-5 the OUTER 'RONDACs percip 36''
67
hugelkultur fungi books wofati solar woodworking
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Jenna Sanders : one note, one vote done and done !
 
Posts: 279
Location: S.E. Michigan - Zone 6a
21
6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
This was also a great surprise to me as well. I didn't hear anything about it until after it is done. I also can't really tell what it means. It sounds like someone could come and build a house within 250" of your farm and then try to get ordinance passed to stop you from farming. This made the MI Right To Farm Act almost meaningless. Even more disturbing is the MI Farm Bureau supported this change. How can you develop a business when at any time you could be forced out of business by a zoning or ordinance change.

Love to hear from anyone in MI who can figure out what this really means.
 
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
357
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I am not from MI, though I have spent some summers in St. Joseph county.
I was seriously looking at some land in the UP.

Anywhere except Mi, this would be a no-brainer: just buy property outside of city limits, and you should be OK.
MI, however has that 'township' thing going on.
You might be an hours drive to a township with a population of 100, but are still included as being in the township, as if you actually lived in the town. Does that mean that you are still within the restrictions that the township has set up for 'in town'?

MI has some serious economic issues. Detroit, and surrounding areas are probably at half (or less) of their previous populations. The high wage union assembly line jobs are gone, yet the politicians continue "living in the good old days" when there seemed to be an endless supply of dollar bills flowing through the system. The tax burden on the survivors is overwhelming. Henry Ford, Louis Chevrolet, and the union bosses can no longer offer them lavish gifts, but they still want to relive the good old days. Are they looking at BigAg to replace the auto industry to keep their golden chariots in the race?
 
Peter Ellis
Posts: 1670
Location: Fennville MI
83
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
John, Michigan is hardly the only state with townships

Honestly, I think the current administration works for the Corporate Citizens and not the Human Citizens.

I think this rule interpretation is intended to let developers force farms out of areas, because the developers are corporate citizen types and the farms they will force out are just family type operations.

One semi-positive note, after reading the regulation about new or expanded livestock facilities - the average permie type homestead skates in under the number of "animal units" at which one is required to go through their certification process.

One aspect of the right to farm law to keep in mind - it never really protected a right to farm, but it did provide a set of guidelines to follow and if you followed those guidelines then it provided a defense against civil suits to shut down your farm for being a farm. So you had to farm according their rules to get any benefit from the law.
 
John Polk
steward
Posts: 7926
Location: Currently in Lake Stevens, WA. Home in Spokane
357
  • Likes 1
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

John, Michigan is hardly the only state with townships


I realize this. However, in most states, once you get outside of city limits, you are pretty much 'on your own'. You can pretty much do as you please.

My friends from MI are telling me that the entire 'Right to farm' issue started a couple decades ago when city folks began moving beyond the suburbs, building McMansions, and then complaining that their neighbor's farm smelled, raised dust, had noisy machinery running too early in the mornings, etc. It was a measure to protect the rights of the farmers in agricultural regions. Now, (according to some), people have been misinterpreting the rulings to believe that they have the right to bring goat/pig/chicken farms into the city and suburban areas. That is the opposite of what the original ruling was trying to address.

To be honest, with the state of the MI economy right now, they should be overjoyed that anybody, anywhere in the state is producing food for local consumption. Those politicians that used to wine & dine with the UAW big wigs, are now under the thumbs of BigAg, who sees their monopoly being eroded.
 
If you two don't stop this rough-housing somebody is going to end up crying. Sit down and read this tiny ad:
Learn Permaculture through a little hard work
https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic