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Injury

Posted by Rick Harris on

We also like to point out that we do have a personal injury lawyer on staff who is a great help in dealing with lawsuits and actions relating to injuries.  We have had many situations in which someone is injured at another person’s property, or a child is hurt, or a faulty piece of injures someone.

We find that connecting the dots between Right to Farm and Personal Injury, we are able to advocate – as a firm – on behalf of both the farmer and the person injured on the farm.

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Annual Breakfast

Posted by Rick Harris on

One of the most fun events in our community is that annual farm breakfast. A different family hosts the breakfast every year and it’s a great opportunity for everyone to come together, compare stories and techniques, spend time together, and remember that before everything – we are a community and we look out for one another.

The event usually starts around 9am and includes a large family-style local breakfast spread – meat, cheese, eggs, vegetables, fruit, preserves, pickles, etc; coffee and tea; an adult beverage station, much of its items are local; a little petting zoo often with cutie baby animals; community elections (like which family will host the event the following year, who will be on the planning committee, etc); and a current events and politics group for anybody who wants to yell or vent about what’s going on in the news.

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Family Business

Posted by Rick Harris on

Many families in our community are multi-generational and dedicated to their farm. Physical tasks are divided up and shared like chores, the business may be run by a chosen selection of family members and eventually taught and shared with others, the house and family are a part of the farm rather than just those tending to it.

Industrial, or Factory farms appropriately adhere to different laws that more accurately capture their type of operation. We believe firmly in the importance of family farms rather than factory farms. They are more environmentally responsible, they have a more intimate relationship with the crops and animals grown and maintained within. They are safer, healthier, and cleaner.

They are also less inclined to have a significant legal team or team of legal representatives on retainer to advise and pursue legal action when appropriate. For this reason, we do much of our work on a more fitting pricing scale – some is done pro bono – and we have existing relationships with everyone in the community, so we’re more than just a small storefront full of lawyers.

Many of us grew up farming in the community and a few of us even moved here later in life and became farmers. As such, we have a great respect for this way of life and work hard every day to sustain it!

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Contact Us

Posted by Rick Harris on

Farming has been an American tradition, most of the success achieved in this country could not have been possible without the rich farmland and its strong committed farmers. While media may paint farmers as dumb yokels or illiterate rednecks, farmers keep America fat, rich, and happy. And the kind of memory, intelligence, and book-keeping required to run a healthy and profitable farm may not be reflected in a degree or resume, but it is integral to a successful nation.

The rapid departure of folks from cities all across the country was not only an ugly and shameful reflection of racism and some of the worst moments in our history, but a big interruption to the farmland feeding the nation.

Down came green and farmable spaces, up went suburban subdivisions and strip malls. Farms were suddenly seen as an ugly inconvenience. So in the early 1980’swhen right-to-farm communities were growing in number, our founder dedicated his future to ensuring that farms can continue to work and feed the nation, despite the spreading of citizenry.

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Right to Farm

Posted by Rick Harris on

One of the reasons we are so committed to remaining rural in our practice is that we are a proud Right to Farm Community. Most of our staff were born and bred here or in a nearby community and went to law school specifically to be of continued service to our town.

Many of us come from farm families, benefit greatly from the land, and work hard to give back. Farming is a one of the most noble and yet underappreciated occupations in this nation. We are so blessed to live on such a fruitful land and we must honor it while reaping benefits from it. That notion should be the mentality of Americana – so we don’t understand or pay much mind to the larger-scale goings-ons in the nation.

Right to farm laws protect farmers for being the kind of nuisance inherent to farming: producing unsavory odors, not being visually beautiful, making lots of noise, and relying on dangerous structures and machinery. The laws were put into place during white flight and suburb-building to protect farmers against encroachment. The concern being that with the suburbs come new citizens from the city who may want the benefits of living outside of the city without any of the discomforts of being part of a farm-based community.

While people wanted to have it both ways – the safety of a rural area with the comfort of an urban area – and this meant that long-held farming traditions were being suddenly seen as an inconvenience to new citizens.