Feds See Innocent Farmer Plowing Field, Make Heartbreaking Move

By John Falkenberg
August 17, 2017 at 4:12pm

In yet another example of just how badly federal regulations need to be curbed by the still-young Trump administration, as one farmer has settled to a staggering $1.1 million fine for having the audacity to farm his own land.

As The Sacramento Bee reports, Northern California farmer John Duarte became something of a conservative rallying point after being fined for plowing over protected wetlands on his own property. Conservatives saw the fine as government overreach — which it clearly was.

Conservatives hoped that President Donald Trump would step in and order federal officials to back off, but unfortunately, Duarte has run out of time. He had to either reach a small settlement, or be prepared to pay tens of millions in penalties if he had gone to court.

“Given the risks posed by further trial on the government’s request for up to $45 million in penalties… this was the best action I could take to protect those for whom I am responsible,” Duarte said in a statement according to the Pacific Legal Foundation.

So, what exactly happened to cause all this fuss?

As The Washington Times reports, Duarte purchased 450 acres of land to grow wheat which he began to plow in 2012. However, in 2013, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deemed the pools running along the furrows to be “navigable” under the Waters of the U.S., a regulatory definition that has been in use since the late 1980s and determines whether a body of water is under federal jurisdiction. The Obama administration codified a sweeping expansion of the definition in 2015.

In its finding the Corps of Engineers cited Duarte, accusing him of “ripping” federally protected wetlands.

A great many in the agriculture industry had interest in the incident, reportedly “concerned about what had been an Obama administration project to more clearly define what wetlands and waterways fall under the protection of existing clean-water laws,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Duarte sued the Corps, but a federal judge ruled against him June 2016.

In other words, a farmer plowing a wheat field caused such a stir that he nearly devastated his business, Duarte Nursery.

President Trump has ordered either the rescinding or the revision of the 2015 rule by the EPA, but the changes did not come in time to save Duarte better than $1 million.

And that’s why farmers are a largely conservative group.

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