| | Use Email Petition & Call Legislators Support VA Conservation Reform Act with HB 1488 UPDATE: House Bill 1488 (HB 1488) passed the House and is going before the Virginia Agriculture Senate this Thursday, February 12 at 9 a.m.! HB 1488 provides protections for landowners against abusive land trusts by providing accountability, standards and oversight. Please send a message to senators with this Email Petition and follow up with a phone call! Spread the word and pass on this alert!
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Take Action - Use Email Petition & Make Phone Calls
Please send a message to members of the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee via this Email Petition and ask them to support HB 1488. To be most effective, please follow up any message with a phone call. See phone numbers below for the Virginia Senate Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources Committee. |
Talking Points- $100 million dollars each year of Virginia tax dollars pays for the Virginia Conservation Program; however, non-government organizations, like The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), have no oversight, accountability, transparency or standards.
- Many farmers innocently place their properties in agricultural easements or purchase farms with pre-existing agricultural easements only later to find out they can't even have a dog house. Virginia's most famous farmer, Joel Salatin, wrote a very good article "Beware of those sincere sounding conservation easements" discussing the horrors of having a conservation easement.
- These easements are intended for the public good and are a government created program that uses tax dollars and "tax credits". Virginia is one of the few states that can "sell" tax credits. Yet despite this public program, there is no transparency or standards.
- With one of these easements that are "forever" (and forever is a long time), anything can happen and change and terms can be interpreted differently.
- Currently if a dispute arises, the only option for a land owner is full blown litigation that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take years. There is also NO TRANSPARENCY.
- HB 1488 provides a land owner with a forum to have a dispute heard or a question asked for clarification. Makes sense, right? Not only is it good public policy but it provides for protections and accountability that currently do not exist.
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Members of the VA Senate Agriculture, Conservation & Natural Resources Committee Sen. John Cosgrove (R-Chesapeake) (804) 698-7514
Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) (804) 698-7530
Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-Mount Solon)
(804) 698-7524
Sen. Dave Marsden (D-Burke) (804) 698-7537
Sen. Ryan McDougle (R-Mechanicsville) (804) 698-7504
Sen. Don McEachin (D-Richmond) (804) 698-7509
Sen. John Miller (D-Newport News)
(804) 698-7501
Sen. Frank Ruff (R-Clarksville)
(804) 698-7515
Sen. Bill Stanley (R-Moneta) (804) 698-7520
Sen. John Watkins (R-Midlothian)
(804) 698-7510
Sen. Jennifer Wexton (D-Leesburg)
(804) 698-7533
For additional phone numbers for these and other VA Senate members, visit this telephone list. |
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Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit [EIN 20-8605130], defends the rights and broadens the freedoms of family farms and artisan food producers while protecting consumer access to raw milk and nutrient-dense foods. Learn more About Us or read the FTCLDF 2013 Summary.
Donations to the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund are always appreciated though not tax-deductible. Prefer to make a tax-deductible donation? Contact us by email at [email protected] or call 703-208-FARM (3276). |
Please forward this alert to others who are concerned about protecting locally-sourced nutrient-dense foods and preserving sustainable small family farms and artisan food producers as well as defending the rights to sell and to access the foods of one's choice from the source of one's choice. |
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