Effect of the right to farm act on farming in NJ

The Right to Farm Act

Anthony Sposaro

Axia College of University of Phoenix

COM 125 UTILIZING INFORMATION IN COLLEGE WRITING (AXIA

Thea S . Leonard

November 25 , 2006

During the earlier periods of man 's existence , basic necessities such as food were acquired from hunting activities . Of course , hunting meant that prospective prey moved about , that man had to develop an ability to track down animals , and , even then , a certain amount of danger was involved in the search for sustenance . As man developed mastery of his environment , agricultural practices

were developed wherein plants and animals were cultivated and raised in to more conveniently provide for the demand for food . In more recent times , man started building cities - massive structures of stone , steel , concrete and glass . As a mark of modern civilization , cities have become ostensibly greater in size and , consequently , breadth . The effect of urbanization is that farms , those centers of agricultural practices , are slowly being edged away

In New Jersey , and elsewhere perhaps , farms are being pushed away because they can pose a threat to non-farm operators ' sense and sensibilities . Farms concerned with raising animal life have to contend with manure and noise . The greater the number of animals , the more manure is produced . The pile ' smells and the wind can carry it for miles , down to the neighbor 's home . Families that live adjacent to farms get upset over the smell and the noise pollution , and are angered by its constancy . For some , reasons are clear : that these are families that spent or continue to spend a good portion of their income and savings to purchase a home , only to find that they would have to break bread with the smell of chicken manure wafting in the air . Because of this families that live adjacent to farms are wont to complaints

Prior to the Right to Farm Act of 1983 , these complaints have come to be a major burden for farm operators . Without legislation to protect operators , complainants had the full force of law to back their claims to the detriment of farm operations . In suburban New Jersey , there are numerous areas which take farming for granted . The agricultural industry which once served as America 's backbone is now being threatened by battle after battle in the courts

Legislation decided to , one and for all , address the woes of farm operators in New Jersey by enacting the Right to Farm Act in 1983 . While the act aimed to provide New Jersey 's farming community some legal protection in court battles , the legislative piece left out too much room for interpretation , which consequently led it to fail in its noble pursuit . In 1998 , legislation expanded the Act in to put some teeth into it . Unfortunately , the clarification afforded by the expanded act led to court battle after court battle still , and farm operators are still pressed by litigation . As an aggravating factor , some towns have gone so far as to ignore final s issued by the...