Farmer Fined $2.8 Million for Plowing His Own Field

In limited doses, under the appropriate circumstances, succinylcholine is a useful drug. Applied in excess, it kills. The actual cause of death is asphyxia. The drug induces paralysis, resulting in an inability to breathe. Excessive government kills by a similar mechanism. For example:

A farmer faces trial in federal court this summer and a $2.8 million fine for failing to get a permit to plow his field and plant wheat in Tehama County [California].

A lawyer for Duarte Nursery said the case is important because it could set a precedent requiring other farmers to obtain costly, time-consuming permits just to plow their fields.

“The case is the first time that we’re aware of that says you need to get a (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) permit to plow to grow crops,” said Anthony Francois, an attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation.

“We’re not going to produce much food under those kinds of regulations,” he said.

That must be the idea. Government policies are not conducive to growing food in California. Precious farmland has been reduced to desert out of sheer moonbattery (see here, here, and here).

In the present case, the Clean Water Act was used to induce paralysis:

The wheat was planted but not harvested because in February 2013 the Army Corps of Engineers and the California Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board issued orders to stop work at the site because Duarte had violated the Clean Water Act by not obtaining a permit to discharge dredged or fill material into seasonal wetlands considered waters of the United States.

In case not being able to harvest his wheat does not reduce him to bankruptcy,

In addition to civil penalties, the attorney’s office is also asking the judge to order Duarte to repair the damage to the wetlands, including smoothing out the soil and replanting native plants in the wetlands.

He may also be required to purchase other wetlands to compensate for the alleged damage to the property south of Red Bluff, according to the U.S. Attorney’s proposed penalties.

California is a great place to be an entertainer or a lawyer, but no longer such a great place for farming. We may have to find another breadbasket — not that Big Government won’t suffocate it if we do.

On tips from KirklesWorth, Torcer, and Bodhisattva.