Closing arguments on the case were heard on Friday last week.
Here is a statement from Save Farm Families, who have been following this case and raising money to help support the Hudson family:
“Willards, MD (November 30, 2012) – Members of SaveFarmFamilies.org attended closing arguments earlier today at Baltimore’s Federal Court House in support of Alan and Kristin Hudson, fourth generation family farmers from Berlin, Md., who are at the center of a case filed by the New York-based Waterkeeper Alliance.
After the Hudsons’ two-and-a-half year ordeal, farmers from Maryland’s Eastern Shore and around the nation are waiting on the court’s decision, which could make every farm with a chicken house a potential violator of the Clean Water Act.
“We have always known that this was a frivolous suit from the outset and fully anticipate that the Hudsons will be exonerated,” said Lee Richardson, president of the Wicomico County Farm Bureau and a SaveFarmFamilies.org member. “This was a case where the Assateague Coastal Trust and overzealous student lawyers at the University of Maryland’s Environmental Law Clinic, funded by Maryland taxpayers, got carried away and filed a suit that had absolutely no basis.”
According to Richardson, the legal assault launched by environmental activists is an attack on farmers’ way of life and an attempt to eradicate modern agriculture. “The Hudsons are merely viewed as collateral damage by these extremists whose true desire is to destroy our state’s agricultural community,” he said. “We came to court today in a show of support for the Hudson family and agriculture, which is the backbone of our country.”
Meanwhile, the Hudson family has been treated like criminals simply for attempting to raise food for the tables of their neighbors, while the Waterkeeper Alliance continues to make outrageous allegations which are inaccurate, and jeopardize the business of a farm family attempting to make a living as generations of their family have for decades.
“According to court filings, the Waterkeeper’s case is based upon the notion that if one molecule of litter gets into a water source that farm is liable,” said Andrew McLean, president of the Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc. and a SaveFarmFamilies.org member. “The case has really never been about pollution but about an extreme activist’s group’s opposition to modern agriculture and their publicly stated attempt to use litigation to ultimately eradicate it.”
Members of the farming community expect a favorable ruling when the judge renders his decision. McLean said he remains confident in the merits of the Hudsons’ case and looks forward to the day when the Hudsons will be able to put this ordeal behind them and go back to the business of farming with this burden lifted from their shoulders. “We believe that justice will prevail and that future generations of the Hudson family will continue to farm their land for years to come,” he said.”
I will update as soon as we hear the outcome!
Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
