Proposition 1
“The constitutional amendment protecting the right to engage in farming, ranching, timber production, horticulture, and wildlife management.”
According to the League of Women Voters, if voters approve Proposition 1, it would allow for people and businesses to farm, ranch, produce timber, or manage wildlife on property they own or lease. LWV also said “The state of Texas could still allow state agencies or local governments to regulate these practices:
- If there is clear and convincing evidence that the regulation is needed to protect public health from imminent danger
- To prevent danger to animal health or crop production
- To conserve the state’s natural resources.
SUPPORTING VIEWPOINT
Jimmy Gaines
President
Q: Why should the average Texan care about Proposition 1?
A: If somebody’s endeavor is a beneficial thing, most people would want to be supportive of that. In this case it is agriculture.The legislation was motivated by unfair practices of a number of municipalities in Texas, and this has been happening for many years. Municipalities in Texas have a power that counties do not have, which is zoning power, and oftentimes a piece of land has been a farm for many years and the city grows and expands and annexes somebody’s farm, and sometimes neighbors are annoyed by operation on the farm, for some reasons that are completely silly, unfair, unjust. Cities can tell somebody they can’t farm anymore, and they’ve done this quite a few times. You can listen to the testimony at the hearings on SJR 126, which is the proposition; then you can hear these actual incidents.
Q: Why does your organization support this proposition?
A: The same reason. Our organization has one purpose and it’s the protection of the person’s rights and the use of private property, and so we certainly understand that people have the right to grow crops and raise livestock and/or any agricultural pursuit. (There are) a lot of instances with cities interfering with that right and that’s why we are supporting it. … We think it will provide fairness, provide some protection for agriculture, people doing agricultural things. We think it’ll do a lot good, but we also think it could’ve been written better, which is not unusual for the Legislature. But it doesn’t have any wording whatsoever that mentions cities are the powers of the municipal government of Texas. And I think it really should have been stronger and easily enforced.
– This Q&A was condensed. Interview conducted by Jasmine Castaneda, Saile Aranda and Victoria Arredondo.
OPPOSING VIEWPOINT
Megan Neubauer
Owner Of Pure Land Farm, a pick-your-own fruit and vegetable farm in McKinney
Member, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Q: Why should the average Texan care about Proposition 1?
A: Proponents of Prop 1 want you to believe this is about helping small farms, but the real beneficiaries are Big Agribusiness. Prop 1 would allow Big Agribusiness to operate practically unregulated, leaving neighbors with little recourse when toxic sprays and pollutants negatively impact their properties.
Q: Why do you and the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance oppose it?
A: While Prop 1 is nuanced and would help some small farms by eliminating onerous, unreasonable regulations for small farmers, it would cause more harm than good. This is because it would allow Big Agribusiness bad actors to pollute and operate in environmentally harmful ways with very little regulation. Imagine living next to a concentrated agricultural feeding operation that allowed raw manure to flood over into your property – under Prop 1, you would have no recourse against that farm, who has the “right” to operate that way if in accordance with the practices put in place by unelected deciders.
– Neubauer provided these statements in an email to The Mesquite.
