'Right to Farm' Expansion Delayed by Concern Over Neighbors' Rights

In the Legislature Monday, a proposal making it harder for neighbors to sue farmers over nuisances like odors was delayed by opponents who said it could deny justice to people with legitimate complaints.

The bill introduced by Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango would expand Nebraska’s so-called “Right to Farm” law. That law, passed in 1982, says farms that existed before a change in use or occupancy of the land around them cannot be considered a nuisance.

Hughes’ bill would require farmers to use reasonable techniques to minimize things like dust, noise, insects and odors. But it would also protect them from lawsuits because of a change in the size or type of farm operation.

Hughes said that protection is needed because many urban residents who move to the countryside have an idealized vision of what rural life is like. “Not fully knowing what to expect, they move in and are annoyed by the regular sights, sounds and smells that accompany rural living and farm life. They are not following the advice of ‘Buyer Beware’ and they seek restitution for not doing their research and understanding what agriculture is really about prior to moving in,” he said.

Hughes used an urban analogy to explain the situation. “This is not any different from someone who has moved in next to the airport and then begins complaining about the airplanes,” he said.

And Hughes tried to preempt arguments that the proposal favors big agricultural operations, like hog confinement or cattle feedlots, at the expense of their smaller farm neighbors. “There’s a lot of concern – I know you’ve all gotten a lot of emails, and I hear there’s some phone calls coming in – that this is about Big Ag. It is not about Big Ag. It’s about Ag – big, small, medium. We’re seeing a concentration of agriculture, because that is what keeps our food prices cheap. But we want to keep as many people on the farm as possible. And this bill will help do that. And this bill will help do that,” he said.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers opposed Hughes proposal. Chambers described a scenario he said the bill would allow. “If I move in and my neighbor has row crops, that’s one thing. And if my neighbor has done that for a year or more, then under this bill, he can start a swine operation. He can build a feedlot operation, which he did after I move in. This bill allows that,” Chambers said.

Sen. Steve Lathrop, another opponent, quoted the complaints of rural neighbors of a hog confinement operation. “Plaintiffs described the odors from these facilities as unbearable, overwhelming, a suffocating stench, a musty hog s**t smell, a sewage odor, gas-like smell, a smell that chokes you. Plaintiffs further testified that smell from the facilities is significant enough that it has impacted their daily lives. Various plaintiffs testified to being forced to keep their houses closed up at all times,” Lathrop said.

And Lathrop said the existing law provides protections that the proposed change would not provide against agricultural nuisances. When that gets so bad that I can’t go outside my house because of the smell and the flies, I can go to court right now, as long as I didn’t move into the condition, and say ‘Judge, you gotta stop it,’” he said.

Senators ran out of time for debate before reaching a first-round vote on the bill. Hughes said he has enough support to get Speaker Jim Scheer to schedule it for further debate. If that happens, Scheer says, it could be back on the agenda later this week.

Also Monday, senators gave first-round approval to a bill aimed at improving services for people with disabling mental illnesses. Sen. Lynn Walz said the proposal grew out of an investigation last summer of state-funded assisted living facilities. “We found…that residents were being rotated from one terrible facility to another, and were not allowed the right to live in the most integrated settings, with services that are community based. This bill has the ability to guarantee an essential quality of life filled with protection from abuse and neglect – a life filled with dignity and respect, readily available for all Nebraskans,” Walz said.

The bill requires the state to come up with a comprehensive plan to improve services by November 1. It advanced on a vote of 39-0.