Hammond Defends Field Burning

Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Coeur d’Alene, debating in favor of HB 210, the right-to-farm expansion, recalled the field-burning smoke issue on the Rathdrum Prairie. “In fact, the same folks who were fussing about the smoke didn’t realize the irony of getting rid of that smoke and getting rid of the agriculture actually resulted in more pollution,” when that land instead was developed, he said. “We don’t grow crops any more, we just grow houses,” he said. “We have not the right to move in next to an agriculture operation and then complain of noise or smoke or dust. You want to live out in the country, it’s a different lifestyle, you just need to live with it. But you have no right to take away somebody’s way of life and the way that they make their living because you find it a nuisance”/ Betsy Russell , Eye On Boise.

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Question: Would you rather have the field burning of old on the Rathdrum Prairie or the subdivisions that are rapidly replacing the grass-seed fields?