Since January we've endured a Republican "lightening war" that's advanced corporate interests and challenged our country's safeguards for health, education, women's rights, representational government and much more. Deficit hawks have never before hit so hard and deliberately at the guts of the American commonweal.

On the Florida front, there's freshman state Senator Jim Norman from Tampa, who's introduced a bill he's innocuously entitled "Farms". Norman wants to turn photography in rural areas into a felony offense. You think I exaggerate? Here's the language from the "Farms" bill:

A person who photographs, video records, or otherwise produces images or pictorial records, digital or otherwise, at or of a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree.

No matter how lightly you parse those words, they remain what they are: A blanket criminalization of rural picture-taking. I've reproduced the entire bill at the end this post.

Many commentators have described the ridiculous implications of Norman's bill and the ways it violates a photographer's right to take pictures from public space.

Personally, the bill confuses me, as it does many people. Which is why I called up Senator Jim Norman's office to ask him what he was up to. Dennis answered the phone. Dennis didn't say who he was and neither did I, but we had a cordial conversation. According to Dennis, Norman's bill aims to protect a farm producer's property rights and business interests. He compared farming production practices to "intellectual property" and said they were similar to the proprietary practices of a manufacturer (he cited Apple as an example), whose business interests would be compromised, if their production practices were made public. Dennis emphasized that the "Farms" bill is being amended to improve its language, and it's not intended to cover up illegal activity.

Dennis also said Norman wrote the bill in response to an incident in Ohio, where a PETA activist surreptitiously took photos of a livestock operation. I wanted to compare that incident with Norman's bill, but my Google searching turned up several PETA stories in Ohio, and I couldn't figure out which one Norman might have been responding to. Apparently, Norman admits there's never been a similar incident in Florida.

What Norman doesn't admit – and what his bill doesn't acknowledge – is that accountability improves agricultural production practices. All we have to do is look at the work of Temple Grandin, on the academic side, along with PETA, on the activist side, and Sinclair Lewis, on the muckraking side, to see how livestock operations, confinement and slaughter have improved when untoward "best practices" were subjected to scrutiny. Likewise, the vegetables, fruits and grains we eat today are healthier for us because the spray-by-the-calendar approach to post-WWII pesticide-application got replaced by post-Silent Spring pest management and pesticide regulation. Deal with it. Twenty-first century agriculture is a first-rate example of how public accountability can make life better for consumers, farm workers and ecosystems. In Florida, do I even need to mention how life improved after slavery in Florida agriculture was recently exposed?

Still, any farm kid will tell you that farming's a gritty business that puts you in touch with life and death. If you want to romantically call that "the cycles of life and death", that's up to you, but however you describe it, be prepared to move the 1000-pound hog from the road after she dies from a heart attack because a passing car scared her. Or be prepared to loose your hearing because your tractor didn't have a manifold, but you had to plow anyway. Or be prepared to give up farming altogether, after your Dad's tractor rolls down an incline and pins you underneath it.

All things considered, current law does a pretty good job of protecting the property rights of farm producers. Norman's bill would protect something else: The unhealthy, inhumane and unsustainable practices that need to change in order for our agriculture to remain the most productive.

But enough with politics. Here's a couple of farm photos from Northern Colorado, which I took yesterday afternoon. I'm publishing them here for Senator Jim Norman to chew on.


The first two photos show the sheep at Double J Farms and Feeding, which is located 20 miles east of Fort Collins in Ault, Colorado. Double J describes itself as a "natural feedlot". I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds promising. I called up my local Whole Foods Market to see if they obtained their Colorado lamb from Double J... They don't. Their "naturally raised" Colorado lamb comes from producers located in Meeker, Colorado (on the Western Slope) and Oak Creek, Colorado (south of Steamboat Springs). Interestingly – and not to digress, but – the availability of Colorado lamb only extends from the fall to early January. The rest of the year, Whole Foods gets its lamb from New Zealand.

To read more about Double J, check out Teri Munson's post from earlier this year, Lamb chops made in feed lots? I don't know who Teri Munson is, but she's got an Ann Richards wit, and – if you care anything about "resolving conflict between the natural and built environment" – you'll do yourself a favor by reading her blog at Sheperd's Crook Enterprises.

The third photo, above, shows one of the wall murals at Bruce's Bar in Severance, Colorado. Bruce's is located 6½ miles south of Double J. Driving over there yesterday afternoon, I heard a meadowlark song come in through the window, and I passed a restored pickup from circa 1950, which had been painted a deep-yellow color. Those are bona fide country experiences, and no matter how modest they might be, you can't get 'em in town.

The mural at Bruce's shows a bull riding a Harley and holding a sign saying, "Still got mine". Good for him, because Bruce's Bar is renowned for its Rocky Mountain oysters. Oysters are a spongy, fatty food and take some getting used to. But Bruce's deep-fries them just right. If you're visiting Northern Colorado, you ought to stop in and try them. That's my advice to you, too, Senator Jim Norman. Nobody's industrial secrets will have been compromised at Bruce's, in preparing you your plate of beef testicles, but Jim, based on what we've learned about you, you'll probably want to make the dish illegal.

Florida Senate – 2011, SB 1246

By Senator Norman

12-01071A-11, 20111246__

A bill to be entitled
An act relating to farms; prohibiting a person from entering onto a farm or photographing or video recording a farm without the owner’s written consent; providing a definition; providing penalties; providing an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

Section 1. (1) A person who enters onto a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

(2) A person who photographs, video records, or otherwise produces images or pictorial records, digital or otherwise, at or of a farm or other property where legitimate agriculture operations are being conducted without the written consent of the owner, or an authorized representative of the owner, commits a felony of the first degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.

(3) As used in this section, the term "farm" includes any tract of land cultivated for the purpose of agricultural production, the raising and breeding of domestic animals, or the storage of a commodity. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.

Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2011.