Agriculture

A Distorted Image of the Court

The day after the Supreme Court delivered a victory for Pacific Legal Foundation in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid, Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation, published a column under this blistering, eye-catching headline: “Yesterday’s Union-Busting Supreme Court Decision Was a Segregationist Throwback.” Chief Justice John Roberts’ decision, Mystal wrote, used arguments “effectively repurposed from arguments segregationists used against civil rights activists.” We shouldn’t even be surprised by the decision, he scoffed, because “[t]he court’s conservatives have done everything they can think of to de-unionize America in service of mega-corporate interests.” By siding with Cedar Point Nursery, the Court “not only opened the door to continued union-busting” but also “reinvigorated long-discredited views of how property owners might use that property as an excuse to deny civil rights across the spectrum,”

The Forever Job

Legend. Icon. Renegade. Pioneer. The sobriquets Willie Benedetti collected during his lifetime are as numerous as they are grand.

The American Farmer Inspired a New Generation of Farmers in the Former USSR

There's an old saying: “When you’re having dinner tonight, thank a farmer.” Walking through a grocery store, it’s easy to forget everything that went into getting that apple or steak onto the shelves.

Whiskey’s for Drinking, Water Rights Are for Fighting Over

Drive east of of Portland, Oregon, on Highway 84 for a few hours and most of the trip you’ll be alongside the Columbia River, where some centuries ago, steely men named Lewis and Clark risked life and livelihood to paddle into uncharted territory.

The Government Is Getting in the Way of Ken Klemm Helping Native Species and Habitats Thrive

Ken Klemm is an American rancher who can talk proper land management techniques just as easily as Enlightenment theory and the importance of individual rights.

Jack LaPant Built his Farm from Nothing; the Army Corps of Engineers Nearly Took It All Away

In 1994, Jack LaPant moved his wife and two young children from the San Francisco Bay Area to the country to pursue the independence of running his own farm.

The Story We Didn’t Know: Mike Fahner’s First Fight Began in the Klamath Basin

It has been six years since a crowd of activist United Farm Workers stormed Cedar Point farms, disrupting more than 500 employees hard at work preparing strawberry plants to ship throughout the country. It has been five years since Mike Fahner, owner of Cedar Point Nursery, launched a lawsuit with PLF against California for giving special interest groups permission to invade farms. And it’s been six months since the Supreme Court agreed to hear Mike’s case, with the potential to protect the property rights of owners everywhere. Why is Mike so willing to swan-dive into a long, laborious fight that would put him under the scrutiny of national media, the public, and the most important judges in the country? Well, this is not Mike’s first fight with the government. Mike’s story did not begin in those early-morning hours in 2015 or even with the creation of Cedar Point Nursery 20 years ago. It began with the birth of overreaching environmental regulations and the family farm he was forced to abandon.

Forced Farming Mandate Needs to Be Put Out to Pasture

Lauded for their taste and quality, Willie Bird Turkeys are sold by the tens of thousands each Thanksgiving in grocery stores and Williams-Sonoma catalogs. Willie has spent five and a half decades building his brand by combining traditional, free-range farming with sophisticated monitoring technology, and now he’d like to spend some time relaxing with his grandkids on his beloved Marin County property.