Martha Bonata bought 64 acres of beautiful farm land in
Fauquier County seven years ago. The barn was in disrepair and the land hadn’t
been well taken care of. She set out to change that, spending thousands to turn
the barn into a quaint little store. She brought in over 150 rescued animals,
including goats, ducks, turkeys, even an emus.
She used the store to sell items grown on the property,
including tomatoes and eggs. In addition, Martha is incredibly talented in
crafting decorative and useful items from her farm sources. For example, her
emus’ feathers, which it drops on the ground, are turned into jewelry. She
created a wooden item that contains small slits on each of its four sides. In
the slits she stuffs bits of wool discarded by her sheep. The item’s purpose
was to hang in the yard so birds can use the bits of wool to make their nests.
Above all, Martha turned the farm into a classic organic farm of naturally
grown produce.
Everything was looking great for a lady anxious to get her
hands in the dirt. Oh yes, there was just one small detail brought up during
the negotiation for the purchase of the property. The Piedmont Environmental
Council slipped in a conservation easement on the property. This specific easement did not pay any cash
to Martha nor did it provide any tax credits. All the benefits went to PEC.
Martha signed the document because she had been told conservation easements
were a way to protect the farm from being developed. She was for that.
But there is one major aspect of Martha’s value system that
doesn’t fit the PEC profile for the perfect small farmer. She believes in
private property rights. And that’s when the trouble started. Space does not allow a full description of
the battles Martha has faced over her attempts to farm her land. Here is the “Cliff
notes” version:
Martha does not live on the farm, she owns a home in another
location. The conservation easement she signed said she could have a small 1600
square foot residence on the property. She never used the facility as a
residence.
The Fauquier County planning board suddenly issued notice
that Martha would be fined for selling items that were not produced on her
farm, something she never actually did. And they warned that she needed another
permit in order to use the facility for events.
She was immediately threatened with fines of $5000 a day for
each violation brought by the County. The evidence used against her by the
county was a photo of a children’s birthday party that Martha had posted on her
face book page, allegedly proving that she had rented out the barn for a party.
in fact, it was a private party for personal friends. No money exchanged hands
for the facility. But the battle was on.
Martha began to learn what a powerful weapon conservation
easements can be in the hands of those who wanted to control her actions. The
easement gave the PEC the right to occasionally inspect the property for
“violations’ of the easement. Suddenly Martha was informed that PEC inspectors
would visit the farm to investigate the “living quarters.” Rather than a
random, occasional, or annual visit, PEC came back again and again; demanding
to look into her private closets; even banning her right to video tape the
inspections on her own property.
The PEC found fault with a simple water nozzle Martha had
purchased to use in washing her animals. Somehow that was a violation. There is
an old cemetery on the property dating back to 1832. In it are buried the
families of former residents of the area and black slaves. To keep the farm
animals from walking though the cemetery, Martha installed a simple fence.
“Violation,” said PEC, “It damages the view shed.” On and on went the
harassment over such idiotic claims. Along with it came thousands of dollars of
legal expenses as Martha fought to defend herself.
Eventually, as a result of non-stop pressure and the threat
of fines from the County, plus the pressure from PEC, not to mention a
“coincidental” IRS audit, Martha was forced to close her little store, seriously
damaging a major part of her ability to earn income from the farm.
Worse, county officials have made outrageous claims in
attempts to justify their actions. They claim that Martha’s small store, and
others like it on local farms, will lead to the establishment of Walmarts in
rural areas. And most recently one official has made the claim on local
television that her store is the pathway to junk yards and car lots.
What was her real crime? She had challenged county planning
restrictions. And in doing so, she had become a threat to their authority and
that of the PEC, which is the driving force behind county controls over private
property.
These are the results of the implementation of Sustainable
Development policy and why the American Policy Center is dedicated to stopping
it. For more information about Sustainable Development, Agenda 21 and how to
stop it, go to APC’s web site, www.americanpolicy.org and join the fight to end this
tyranny over American citizens and your property rights.
Freedom For Liberty Farm - Video
(https://vimeo.com/73774312)
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NewsWire Articles
Sustainable Development Financing Committee Holds First
Meeting
(http://uncsd.iisd.org/news/sustainable-development-financing-committee-holds-first-meeting/213259/)
UNCED | Financing, Committee members discussed
modalities for its work, an outreach strategy for communication with the UN
General Assembly (UNGA) and stakeholders, and ways to organize itself for
future sessions, according to a briefing provided on 30 August 2013.
“The three cluster topics are: financing needs and
qualitative considerations, including the impact of the domestic and
international environment; mobilization of resources and their effective use,
as well as the efficiency of the financial system; and institutional
arrangements, policy coherence, governance issues, and synergies.”
Please read the above sentence and tell me if you can make
sense of it. For instance, “mobilization
of resources and their effective use.”
What resources? Human
resources? What other resources are they
able to mobilize? Synergies? Huh? I
think all of that is Newspeak for, “We
are trying to say we are taking control of everything on earth but don’t want
to say it in understandable language... [Click here to read more (http://uncsd.iisd.org/news/sustainable-development-financing-committee-holds-first-meeting/213259/)
]
Sustainable Development Picking Up In Southwest Riverside
County or an Ode to Agenda 21 by the Useful Idiots of Riverside County (http://lakeelsinore wildomar.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/sustainable-development-picking-up-in-southwest-riverside-county_68ba5e82)
Lake Elsinore Wildomar Patch |
“The move toward more sustainable living has come from the very
top. In 2010, the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities was
created by the Obama administration “to help communities realize their visions
for a more prosperous future.” The
article has the mayor denying that it
could possibly take away property rights and freedom, that this “means building
smart with the future in mind.” He
neglects to say that future will make communism look desirable... [Click here
to read more (http://lakeelsinore-wildomar.patch.com/groups/business-news/p/sustainable-development-picking-up-in-southwest-riverside-county_68ba5e82)
]
What is Sustainable Development
(http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/sd.html)
The World Bank Group
| “How do we decide whose needs
are met? Poor or rich people? Citizens or immigrants? People living in cities
or in the countryside? People in one country or another? You or your neighbor? The environment or the
corporation? This generation or the next generation? When there has to be a
trade off, whose needs should go first?”
Ah, how easy to make everything seem like you have to pick one or the
other -- citizens or immigrants, rich or poor, and on and on. Read on: “For example, if you listed clean
air to breathe, but also listed a car for transportation, your needs might
conflict.” Car or air, one or the other;
supposedly you can’t have both. What a
load of road apples. And all of this is
from the World Bank. Do they really
think that we are dumb enough to swallow that it is an either/or world? They are spending too much time around their
useful idiots... [Click here to read more
(http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/sd.html) ]
------------------------------------------------------------
Special Report: Agenda 21 and How to Stop It
http://store.americanpolicy.org/products/special-report-agenda-21-and-how-to-stop-itHere
it is. The best little booklet yet offered on “Agenda 21 and How to Stop It.”
This new tool is a must for local activists looking for effective ways to fight
Sustainable Dev elopement in their local community.
Written by nationally-recognized Agenda 21 expert Tom
DeWeese, this 35 page booklet gives a brief, but detailed overview of Agenda
21, its origins; details of the infamous “three Es;” the four ways Agenda 21 is
implemented throughout the nation; and details on some of the main Planners who
are enforcing the policy of Sustainable Development.
In addition, the booklet, produced by American Policy
Center, includes brand new step by step ideas on how to fight back in local
communities, including definitions on property rights useful in writing
legislation and a “Resolution to Protect Citizens’ Property Rights,” that is
becoming a valuable new tool across the nation to challenge local planning
regulations.
The booklet is colorfully illustrated with graphics created
by Carroll County, Maryland Commissioner Richard Rothschild, the elected
official who led his county to be the first to oppose Sustainable Development
infringement policies.
Click here to purchase this booklet
(http://store.americanpolicy.org/products/special-report-agenda-21-and-how-to-stop-it)
Source: (http://us1.campaignarchive1.com/?u=3af5d41d21ad9fce53c86ba9d&id=75e3099493&e=5f675b1de6)
http://americanpolicy.org
APC Newswire Produced by American Policy Center Tom DeWeese, President
Kathleen Marquardt, Editor
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