Hi, this is my first post under this username, but I've been around awhile. I used my unusual, actual first name as my username previously, but I ran into some privacy issues, and, well, let's just say using my real name online was a mistake, and leave it that. 
There is a mammoth thread over on BYC about Michigan's Right to Farm act. The Blondie and Dagwood version of this law is that if you are commercial farm that follows Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs), you can farm anywhere, regardless of how your local government has zoned things. (GAAMPs are really the bare minimum. Basically they are geared toward CAFOs.) You do have to be commercial, but there's no income requirement- you can sell one egg for ten cents and you're commercial.
Sounds great, right? Here's the thing: the guy in charge of "interpreting" this law for the Michigan Department of Agriculture is an unelected bureaucrat. He has said, repeatedly, both publicly and to me that he will not enforce the MRTFA unless it's about corporate megafarms. Yeah. Our state's Supreme Court has ruled in favor of small farmers THREE times, and explicitly said that this law was written to override local zoning. However, these opinions are unpublished.
I've joined the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense fund. Talked to them (really, they're awesome, everyone here should join) and they let me enroll as a consumer now, to be switched to a farmer's membership when we buy a place, and said that they do/will take on cases where zoning becomes an issue. Also talked to a downstate AG lawyer who was very encouraging. Discussed it with my uncle, an attorney in another state, also encouraging.
But oh, my gosh, the FEAR. I can't get over it. I live in the U.P., the townships up here are small, everything's a patchwork. Township offices are usually staffed by 2-3 part time people who are consistently clueless. Every place we look at I have to make 45 minutes worth of phone calls to find out how it's zoned, and a lot of them just say things like, "ten acre minimum for any livestock" -which is both ridiculous and stupid, and, I suspect, part of the reason that the MRTFA was enacted in the first place. More just don't know a thing. It's incredibly frustrating and time consuming and even though we have everything ready to buy, it's really slowing us down.
We don't just want hens. DH wants to raise pork, I want a Jersey milk cow or at least some dairy goats, we'd like to raise other meat animals, too.
The problem is that if you get flagged with a zoning violation, the township can send the police out to enforce it. There is NO agency that enforces the state Right to Farm Act. You have to take it to court. There's a lot of talk of reworking the MRTFA due to the number of lawsuits and due to the popularity of urban farming in Detroit. So things are evolving right under my nose.
Can someone help me find courage? I have researched this to death and it's just been so much info that I'm kind of paralyzed. The logical part of my brain is telling me to go for it, buy the place that suits us the best and take heart in the law being on our side. But I'm terrified at the thought of township officials and police seizing our animals.
There is a mammoth thread over on BYC about Michigan's Right to Farm act. The Blondie and Dagwood version of this law is that if you are commercial farm that follows Generally Accepted Agricultural Management Practices (GAAMPs), you can farm anywhere, regardless of how your local government has zoned things. (GAAMPs are really the bare minimum. Basically they are geared toward CAFOs.) You do have to be commercial, but there's no income requirement- you can sell one egg for ten cents and you're commercial.
Sounds great, right? Here's the thing: the guy in charge of "interpreting" this law for the Michigan Department of Agriculture is an unelected bureaucrat. He has said, repeatedly, both publicly and to me that he will not enforce the MRTFA unless it's about corporate megafarms. Yeah. Our state's Supreme Court has ruled in favor of small farmers THREE times, and explicitly said that this law was written to override local zoning. However, these opinions are unpublished.
I've joined the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense fund. Talked to them (really, they're awesome, everyone here should join) and they let me enroll as a consumer now, to be switched to a farmer's membership when we buy a place, and said that they do/will take on cases where zoning becomes an issue. Also talked to a downstate AG lawyer who was very encouraging. Discussed it with my uncle, an attorney in another state, also encouraging.
But oh, my gosh, the FEAR. I can't get over it. I live in the U.P., the townships up here are small, everything's a patchwork. Township offices are usually staffed by 2-3 part time people who are consistently clueless. Every place we look at I have to make 45 minutes worth of phone calls to find out how it's zoned, and a lot of them just say things like, "ten acre minimum for any livestock" -which is both ridiculous and stupid, and, I suspect, part of the reason that the MRTFA was enacted in the first place. More just don't know a thing. It's incredibly frustrating and time consuming and even though we have everything ready to buy, it's really slowing us down.
We don't just want hens. DH wants to raise pork, I want a Jersey milk cow or at least some dairy goats, we'd like to raise other meat animals, too.
The problem is that if you get flagged with a zoning violation, the township can send the police out to enforce it. There is NO agency that enforces the state Right to Farm Act. You have to take it to court. There's a lot of talk of reworking the MRTFA due to the number of lawsuits and due to the popularity of urban farming in Detroit. So things are evolving right under my nose.
Can someone help me find courage? I have researched this to death and it's just been so much info that I'm kind of paralyzed. The logical part of my brain is telling me to go for it, buy the place that suits us the best and take heart in the law being on our side. But I'm terrified at the thought of township officials and police seizing our animals.
