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Nebraska ‘ag nuisance’ bill advances

The Nebraska legislature has given first-round approval to LB 227, a bill that would expand legal protections offered under the state’s existing “Right to Farm” law.

Laura Field, vice president of legislature affairs with Nebraska Cattlemen, says current law does not offer enough protection to farmers who want to expand their operations.

“If you wanted to add a few head of livestock, or if you were a row crop farmer and wanted to put a hog barn on the corner of one of your pieces of property to bring back a son or daughter, our laws really don’t protect that,” Field says. “If you make any of those changes, you could open yourself up to be subjected to a nuisance lawsuit.”

Opponents say the legislation is being driven by large corporate farming interests. Field says that’s not the case.

“We’ve heard from members who have tried to go from 300 head to a thousand and have run up against problems with those issues,” she says. “It’s not about Big Agriculture for sure. It’s about agricultural operations of all sizes that are really trying to grow and change to keep up with the times.”

Field says an increase in nuisance lawsuits, particularly in North Carolina, is one of the factors behind the Nebraska effort.

The vote to advance LB 227 was 31-7.

AUDIO: Laura Field

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