Banning Corporate Farms - Southampton Township, PA

The links below to the Anti-Corporate Farming model ordinance was drafted for Southampton Township, Pennsylvania by the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund in Shippensburg, PA. The ordinance is modeled after the language of the constitutional amendments passed in Nebraska and South Dakota that ban corporate farms in those states. Similar laws have passed in Thompson Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania and Wells Township, Fulton County, Pennsylvania. According to the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), as of late 2004, 78 Pennsylvania townships have passed laws banning corporate involvement in agriculture. Several townships have passed laws stripping corporations of constitutional protections and powers.

There are several exceptions to the ban: Family farm corporations, cooperatives and nonprofit corporations are exempted. Existing corporate farms are "grandfathered" under the ordinance.

The Fund also added a provision dealing with citizen suits - which enables any resident of the Township to sue for enforcement in the event that the Township does not pursue enforcement.

More:

• Full Text of Southampton, PA Anti-Corporate Farming Ordinance
• Southampton, PA Home Page
• Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund - has a FAQ on the Southampton Anti- Corporate Farming Ordinance
• Anti-Corporate Farming Laws Benefit Rural Communities - Friends of the Constitution, February 2002
  The results of this analysis indicate that, in general, agriculture dependent counties in states with anti-corporate farming laws fared better (less families in poverty, lower unemployment and higher percentages of farms realizing cash gains) than agriculture dependent counties in states without such laws.
• Anti-Corporate Farming Laws in the Heartland - the Law, History, and Facts on the Anti-Corporate Farming Laws in Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa, by Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, 1997
• Corporate Agribusiness Research Project
• Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
• Familyfarmer.org
• Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC)