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  • 2016-05-30 (xsd:date)
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  • Michigan Right to Farm Act Repealed (en)
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  • On 20 June 2016 the web site Check Out the Healthy World published an article reporting that Michigan residents had lost the right to farm ... last week: A fundamental inaccuracy was apparent at the bottom of the page. Check Out the Healthy World cited the web site Inquisitr as a source, but in fact simply copied an article from that site in its entirety — an article that was originally published back in May 2014. So it was readily apparent that no such changes in the law or loss of farming rights occurred in June 2016. Michigan's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) maintains a web page hosting a link to the law in question, as well as a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list. The latter [PDF] explains the Right to Farm Act [PDF], enacted in 1981, one purpose of which was to establish voluntary guidelines that farmers could follow in order to defend themselves against nuisance lawsuits filed by new residents moving into rural areas that had been subject to rapid housing development: That document also addressed changes made to that law in May 2014, around the time the original Inquisitr article (which held that the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development had acted to exclude small farming endeavors from laws originally allowing for such activities) appeared: We contacted MDARD for clarification on the scope of Michigan's Right to Farm Act, as well as what aspects of it changed (or didn't change) in May 2014. A representative for MDARD told us that misinformation was rife on social media with respect to those changes and the provisions of the act in general, and she pointed us to a 13 May 2014 press release separating fact from fiction: The release clarified that changes to the state's Right to Farm Act is specific to commercial agriculture, not small family farmers raising food and animals for their own consumption, and the law's original purpose was to provide protections for rural farmers due to an influx of previously urban dwellers unaccustomed to the ambiance of farm communities: With respect to the May 2014 changes, MDARD emphasized that no law had ever allowed the keeping of livestock everywhere in Michigan. But since some non-rural, residential communities had passed regulations allowing residents to keep farm animals and others had not, the Right to Farm Act's guidelines were modified to create a category of site that encompassed such non-farm areas: In short, Michigan's Right to Farm Act wasn't drastically changed in June 2016 (or May 2014, for that matter), nor did it strip Michigan residents of their right to farm or to raise animals such as chickens and bees. Its voluntary standards were merely updated to recognize a new category of site: primarily residential, non-agricultural communities that are not suitable for farm animals. (en)
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