Farming In Fear- Martha Boneta story a Virginia farmer
“Earlier this week, I attended an event in Michigan that included a screening of a brand-new documentary called Farming In Fear. The film, just 28 minutes long, tells the story of Martha Boneta, who bought a small farm in Virginia and tried to make a go of it by selling produce and so on. She was viciously harassed by a variety of government agencies and environmental groups who evidently intended to drive her out of business.
It appears to be a classic example of the abuse of regulatory power to promote private interests and ideological agendas. Ms. Boneta’s farm home was subjected to repeated and apparently purposeless inspections of closets, bathrooms and so on. At one point, she was cited for holding an “event” without obtaining thousands of dollars worth of licenses and permits. The “event” was a birthday party for a friend’s daughter.
The story ends happily, as Boneta’s case became notorious and Virginia’s legislature eventually passed legislation that brought the harassment to a stop. Both Ms. Boneta and the filmmaker attended the screening and answered questions; she was very impressive. The film is produced by the Charles Koch Institute.”
The link to the embedded video
Comments and Thoughts
- there needs to be balance in all things. This includes a balance between economy and environment, private property and public good, and community interest over individual interest.
- it should always be about balance, current laws and freedoms, and facts – Not Fear.
- do we need a National Organization that protects landowners ??
- are we over regulating? “Should we not want more small family farmers and farms?”
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For the love of carrots. Worst case of abuse of power and corruption I’ve ever seen. Little known fact here is that this farmer sits on BOD of a state environmental group and is a posterchild for conservation. Background – this was a land grab orchestrated by corrupt rogue land trust – PEC, realtors and county official that was formerly on the BOD of the PEC all documented in hundreds of published communications online that illustrate a disturbing web of deception that includes PEC doctoring easements and baseline docs, fabricating historic significance to land to fundraise and create false historical significance, threats and more. Frankly this PEC is unfit to hold any easements. Bottom line – the illegal and abusive acts of this out this PEC group even provided false documents to state and even entered into a confidential agreement with the realtors to force farmer off farm.
1) Lesson Learned – Do not rally behind groups like the PEC that are caught in illegal and corrupt acts. Why? Because public perception is that all environmental groups are corrupt and abusive when they witness a bunch of environmental groups supporting collusion, corruption, falsified documents and harassment. Don’t do it. Hold your fire. Don’t risk your group’s reputation.
2) There must be oversight and transparency. We expect the American public to support conservation with tax dollars funding conservation easements while at the same time private land trusts are not subject to FOIA nor is there a layer of accountability or review before these deals are inked that would have prevented the fraud in this case. Oh did I mention, the PEC fabricated that this farm was a significant Civil War site to obtain historic significance that does not exist. Turns out it was all made up fiction. This should never happen.
3) When you screw up. Take ownership, don’t blame the victim and fix it. This video should be required viewing for all conservation easement holders across the country. This PEC group decided to blame the victim, hide the evidence and try to silence the public. It all backfired when mountains of evidence surfaced of PEC’s doctored documents and communications.