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  • From: Brigette Leach <avalonfarmshomegrown AT earthlink.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] hovering helicopter
  • Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:12:31 -0400

Well, Sam, Michigan's has and I've seen the video that they made.

Sam White wrote:
Brigette,

Your local Sierra Club takes aerial photos?  I know
national and most state chapters do no such thing,
fyi.

Sam White
National Ag Committee
Sierra Club

--- Brigette Leach
<avalonfarmshomegrown AT earthlink.net> wrote:

  
I've been reading some of the responses to your post
and am thinking
"how paranoid are these people?" But then again, if
you all live in more
remote areas than I do, planes and helicopters are
more unusual. We have
planes and helicopters fly over our farm, literally,
every day. My two
cents is to not take it so personally. Perhaps,too,
I'm more
appreciative of law enforcement efforts because of
the extensive meth
problems that we have dealt with in our area. That
stuff is really bad
news!! And we've had anhydrous ammonia stolen, "el
creepos" prowling 
around in our buildings, and on several occasions
letting our livestock 
out, at night, as a distraction, so they could steal
from the co-op 
across the road while we were chasing hogs.

Leigh, any number of law enforcement agencies do use
helicopters to find
illegal marijuana operations, and typically fly
fairly low. If anyone is
using grow lights, it does show up with their
equipment, and can trigger
a red flag. We have purchased a great deal of
equipment and supplies for
our hydroponic operation through police auctions,
all of it confiscated
from lawbreakers. We have also had our crops
destroyed because some
"yahoo" of the non-law enforcement type has
confiscated, if you will,
our land for their crop of marijuana. At least
around here, the
marijuana growing "yahoos" are not the type I want
prowling around my
farm. If they are dumb enough to plant marijuana in
seed corn fields,
which are inspected regularly, they're dumb enough
to do a lot of stupid
stuff, like shoot people.

Remember, too, that so few people understand any
aspect of agriculture
today, it probably doesn't occur to them that your
animals would be
bothered. We discovered this years ago when a hot
air balloon event was
started in our area. They just didn't know any
better, but after several
farmers complained, the balloonists were much more
courteous, and we
seldom have any problems with the balloonists now.

The other thing that happens regularly around here
is that photographers
fly over farms, of all sizes, take photos and then
approach farm owners
hoping that the photos will be purchased. We also
have several people in
the area with private planes who fly very low
sometimes, again, just not
knowing any better. Oh, if you happen to be near a
body of water, even a
creek, that is part of a conservation project, the
plane could be
explained. It might also have been taking photos for
FSA or crop 
insurance. It could also be the Sierra Club, who
regularly flies around 
taking aerial photos.

The whole thing might have been very innocent...

Brigette



Leigh Hauter wrote:

    
How prevalent is this?

For over 15 minutes yesterday we had a helicopter
      
circling our farm 
    
(must have circled 15 or so times).  Spending a
      
great deal of time 
    
over our hoophouses and greenhouse, scaring the
      
heck our of our dogs, 
    
chickens and turkeys.  Do 'they' do this to
      
everyone or are we being 
    
subjected to some sort of special attention.

I'm offended that my tax money is being used to
      
upset our farm 
    
animals.  Of course there wasn't anything for
      
'them' to take pictures 
    
of except tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, but
      
still, I feel somewhat 
    
violated by this intrusion.  Just because I farm
      
for a living do I 
    
have less privacy rights than others?   Also, I
      
wonder if 'they' (it 
    
looked like Coast Guard marking on the side of the
      
helicopter, I 
    
haven't got a good look at the pictures I took yet)
      
do this to the 
    
big commercial operations or is this a special form
      
of harassment for 
    
family farmers?

Virginia.
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