Letter: Westport tenant farm rules: We’ll hold off on the applause

Posted 2/12/19

To the editor:

Westport now has a Tenant Farm Regulation. The Board of Health confirms it will affect four people.

I’d like to leap up and cheer about finally making some headway in this …

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Letter: Westport tenant farm rules: We’ll hold off on the applause

Posted

To the editor:

Westport now has a Tenant Farm Regulation. The Board of Health confirms it will affect four people.

I’d like to leap up and cheer about finally making some headway in this Sisyphean push up the steep hill of cronyism and obstructionism that defines certain areas of Westport town “governance.” But after two and a half years of begging, my knees are so stiff and sore that I am unable to spring into an upright stance. For the time being, I’ll save my larynx the labor of a “hip-hip-hurrah.”

BOH members maintain that the newly adopted Tenant Farm Reg will be used as a “template” for a more comprehensive “Keeping of Animals” regulation.  This will happen, we are told, only if funding for a part-time field agent and a part-time clerk is approved at May’s Town Meeting. In absence of this funding, there will be no further expansion of farm animal oversight in Westport.

A Keeping of Animals regulation would function largely as an animal site registry, meaning that anywhere from 200-400 people who keep farm animals on their property—and who are currently not registered with the state and, therefore, do not receive an annual inspection—would be mandated to inform the Department of Health of their backyard animal-keeping enterprises. This—not a tenant farm reg effecting four people—is what is required for Westport to eventually shake off its infamy as the town that turned a blind eye (or many blind eyes) to years (if not decades) of horrific levels of animal abuse.

Facing a serious challenge from candidate Tanja Ryden to his reelection bid, BOH Chairman Bill Harkins points to the tenant farm reg as progress made under his watch toward better farm animal oversight. Yet the truth of it is that this small measure was not achieved because of Mr. Harkins, but in spite of him. Feel free to binge watch 30 months worth of vimeos of BOH, BOS, AgCom and, most tediously, Animal Action Committee meetings where he, along with key members of AgCom, fought any and all possible action tooth and claw.

They finally got on board the tenant farm reg because, as AgCom Chairman Ray Raposa put it, “that train has left the station.” Whether BOH or BOS sponsored, it had become clear even to them that some sort of local farm animal oversight ordinance was inevitable. Better to assume control of the situation so as to be in the position of minimizing its impact, than to be left sitting on a bench in an empty station. 

The irony in their stonewalling is that—had such a regulation been adopted pronto after the second Medeiros Horror Farm fiasco in July 2016—those of us who first stood up and demanded better oversight of tenant farms would have figured our concerns had been heard and addressed, and would have likely stood down.

Instead, Mr. Harkins continued to defend the (non) actions of former BOH Chairman John Colletti and board member Karl Santos. Senior Health Agent James Walsh was allowed to “retire” with full pension. AgCom and other Right to Farm stalwarts (including cattle rancher State Rep Paul Schmid) shrugged off the “incident”— their only voiced concerns being that Westport’s touted RTF status not be questioned or the larger farming culture not be associated in any way with what happened off Route 177. At the same time, our local farming community laid low and stayed silent.

And so we stuck around and started paying attention to farming practices here in Westport. It wasn’t long before we heard of several commercial farms with serious, repeated environmental, public health and animal welfare violations. We also quickly learned of the hundreds of “backyard farmers” who keep animals on their property, some who have no idea how to care for these animals, and many who have likely given no thought to such lofty concepts as manure management or the protection of ground water.

Thus, in a wretched, winding way, we have the obduracy of Mr. Harkins and AgCom to thank for our education—and for our motivation to forever get back on our feet and keep pushing this boulder uphill.

Constance Gee

for Stop the Insanity, Westport!

Westport

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