A lawsuit between two neighbors in Colorado could set a precedent for Right to Farm laws, which seek to make it harder to sue family farms, across the country.
Susan Raymond, a veterinarian, sued Edwin Hostetler, the owner of a free-range organic egg farm with 15,000 laying hens that supplies several major stores in the state, including Whole Foods. Raymond essentially claimed the egg operation had trespassed on her private property, arguing that the operation cast a “haze” that made it impossible for her to perform long surgeries because wafting dust and feathers increased the chance of infection. She said both she and some of her prize-winning horses had become sick from the toxic air and that some of the horses had even died.
“Raymond often slept with her windows open to keep cool, and sometimes, she claimed, she woke up to an odor wafting over from the facility. ‘It was so overpowering I would feel like I wanted to retch,’ she said. On some mornings, she awoke with feathers stuck to her face,” reports High Country News.
The jury decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to indict Hostetler on trespass charges. It’s possible that Colorado’s Right to Farm law helped “tip the scales” in Hostetler’s favor, since the statute generally protects farmers from charges against noxious odors and other common farming impacts, says High Country News. Rusty Rumley, a senior staff attorney at the National Agricultural Law Center, told the outlet, “This case could set a precedent for other Right to Farm litigation in Colorado. It could also be cited in cases elsewhere, though judges would not be bound by it.”