Posted on 10/01/2008 6:18:30 PM PDT by BGHater
Bobby Prigel says building an organic creamery will keep his farm alive. But preservationists say it will spoil the rural landscape.
GLEN ARM, Md. -- Bobby Prigel seems like a poster child for the local-food movement. A fourth-generation dairy farmer, he wants to build a creamery to make organic butter, yogurt, cheese and ice cream. He wants to sell those products to consumers in nearby Baltimore instead of shipping his milk out of state. He wants to make enough money to pass on the farm to a fifth generation.
But some neighbors and conservationists are challenging Prigel's plans. Opponents, led by the Long Green Valley Association, say zoning rules prohibit his proposed 10,000-square-foot creamery and retail shop among the rolling hills of Long Green Valley, a designated rural conservation area. They also are suing the Prigel family's Bellevale Farm and a Maryland state preservation agency, arguing that preservation easements on the land prohibit Prigel from processing milk on his farm.
The case has pitted neighbor against neighbor and raised broad questions about the definition of agriculture. Does a creamery that makes butter and cheese qualify as farming or as manufacturing? And how much say should neighbors have in how farmers farm?
All 50 states have so-called right-to-farm laws, intended to discourage nuisance lawsuits from unhappy neighbors. But across the country, clashes are becoming increasingly common. Demand for local food has encouraged small farmers to ramp up production, which can result in more noise, dust, machinery and, if livestock are involved, unpleasant smells. The problem could grow as more farmers, like Prigel, turn to higher-margin foods such as cheese and jam that require processing. Their new mantra: If life gives you lemons, make $10-a-jar lemon curd.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
What’s going to happen is that these environmental whackos will prevent this man from making a reasonable living with his farm, or bankrupt him with legal fees. So he’ll sell it to a developer, who will bribe a few people at the county or state level and get the development rammed through in a few years, when the market has improved. Then there will be twelve million crappy McMansions on the site of the farm instead of cattle and greenery. And won’t the enviros whine then? But it will be entirely their fault. I’ve seen this happen a thousand times.
I know a farmer who decided to farm on his fallow land, which upset a neighbor who wanted the land to grow natural weeds and scrub or something.
So the farmer approached the neighbor and asked him which he would prefer, to see crops or just plowed dirt. The neighbor said neither.
So the farmer said, I’m either going to plant crops there, or if you keep complaining, I am going to plow several tons of bulk rock salt into the soil, which I can buy real cheap from my cousin, so nothing will ever grow there again. So, what’s it gonna be, crops or plowed dirt?
The neighbor agreed to crops.
Idea for satire: NIMBYs cause famine in US.
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!! These people are loons!
Don't dairy farms usually produce dairy products other than milk, or do they usually just milk the cows and then send the milk to Kraft Foods?
Indeed. They are crazy.
The dairy usually does all things.
Btw, every time I pass through SC I stop by this Dairy. Worth a stop if your in the area. Best milk and butter.
http://www.happycowcreamery.com/
The loons won’t stop until we starve.
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