HB 1150 - Bad Neighbor Bill
HB 1150 (Rep. Dickey, R-Musella), passed both chambers on the final day. It strips from Georgia law existing right to farm protections and flips the balance of protections from long-time rural Georgia landowners to new-coming industrial corporate ag operations. This is a signal to large-scale poultry and dairy operations to proliferate in Georgia, after which long-time residents nearby will have far less recourse if the new operations cause harmful environmental impacts to neighboring properties. This also exposes existing farmers to nuisance actions they were previously shielded from.
The bill’s major proponents—Georgia Poultry Federation and Georgia Farm Bureau—are celebrating now, but have put at risk the property rights and values of many of their longest-tenured farmers across the state. Hopefully, impacts are minimal but the path has been paved for significant environmental degradation and property devaluation with little recourse to those in position to most feel the impacts.
Status: The bill was amended with improvements in the Senate Ag Committee, but still stripped property rights from existing Georgia landowners. It passed both chambers as amended on Sine Die.
GWC strongly opposed HB 1150
For more information, please contact Gordon Rogers with Flint Riverkeeper.