Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - URGENT ACTION ALERT: Seed Industry Immediately Threatened by Cano

Cole_Robbie · August 9, 2012

Thanks for elaborating. The law certainly does frown upon creative thinking. It's hard to be the first anything.

Your dispute, which seems to be about zoning, does relate to the original topic in that it is a government action that reduces the value of someone's land. Theoretically, one could try filing suit in Federal court on the basis that the government action is an unconstitutional "taking" under the 5th Amendment for which compensation must be paid. For hundreds of years, the courts only recognized cases where the taking was for public use, like highways and railroads, and those people had to give up their land, but at least got paid. Then in 2005, the Kelo v New London case ruled that a taking could occur for "economic development." The homeowners in the case not only got their homes taken, the ruling was retroactive to several years previous when the case began, so the homeowners all ended up owing Phizer several years worth of back rent on their own homes. That back rent was typically more than the value awarded under the taking, so the homeowners not only got nothing for their property, they got a bill, too.

If the GMO re-zoning is a taking under the 5th Amendment, then the seed farmers are entitled to compensation. The legal battle to determine that amount would take forever, and it might get the state ordered to stop any changes until the case concludes. That's a long shot in a legal sense, but the real clout comes with the threat of big attorney's fees. Whoever has the most money usually wins, and a lot of the states are broke right now. They might back down if they were afraid it would cost them money. That's the only chance I see.

August 9, 2012	#25
Cole_Robbie Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Illinois, zone 6 Posts: 8,407	Thanks for elaborating. The law certainly does frown upon creative thinking. It's hard to be the first anything. Your dispute, which seems to be about zoning, does relate to the original topic in that it is a government action that reduces the value of someone's land. Theoretically, one could try filing suit in Federal court on the basis that the government action is an unconstitutional "taking" under the 5th Amendment for which compensation must be paid. For hundreds of years, the courts only recognized cases where the taking was for public use, like highways and railroads, and those people had to give up their land, but at least got paid. Then in 2005, the Kelo v New London case ruled that a taking could occur for "economic development." The homeowners in the case not only got their homes taken, the ruling was retroactive to several years previous when the case began, so the homeowners all ended up owing Phizer several years worth of back rent on their own homes. That back rent was typically more than the value awarded under the taking, so the homeowners not only got nothing for their property, they got a bill, too. If the GMO re-zoning is a taking under the 5th Amendment, then the seed farmers are entitled to compensation. The legal battle to determine that amount would take forever, and it might get the state ordered to stop any changes until the case concludes. That's a long shot in a legal sense, but the real clout comes with the threat of big attorney's fees. Whoever has the most money usually wins, and a lot of the states are broke right now. They might back down if they were afraid it would cost them money. That's the only chance I see.