Banning Corporate Ownership – South Dakota

  • Nov 21, 2008
  • ILSR
    •
  • State Policy
    •

    Amendment E was passed via referendum in November 1998 with 59 percent of the vote. It was backed by more than two-thirds of farmers and received significant support from South Dakota’s urban centers. Amendment E joined Nebraska’s Initiative 300 as one of the strictest measures of its kind in the nation. Not only were corporations forbidden from owning or controlling farmland, but the practice of of companies paying farmers to raise crops or livestock on their behalf was also prohibited. This practice, known as “contract feeding,” was permissible through a loophole in the old anti-corporate farming law, passed by the state legislature in 1988. Amendment E also disallowed structures such as limited liability corporations and partnerships in which farmers join together to limit their financial liability.

    South Dakota’s Constitutional Amendment E was ruled unconstitutional on August 19, 2003 by the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, MO. The appellate court found the law that South Dakota voters put in place in 1998 to be in violation of the Interstate Commerce Clause.”I’m very disappointed with this decision,” said DRA FARM team leader, Charlie Johnson, “but the fact remains that the voters of South Dakota have chosen family farms over corporate factory farms three times since 1974. While the 8th Circuit Appellate Court has shown total disregard for the wishes of South Dakota’s citizens, I am encouraged by the knowledge of the broad support we have for this issue at home,” said Johnson.

    Dakota Rural Action, the South Dakota Resources Coalition and the South Dakota Attorney Generals office were the defendants in the case. “This is a sad day for South Dakota’s environment; for our family farmers and rural business owners; and for the democratic process,” said Luanne Napton, President of the SouthDakota Resources Coalition. “Amendment E was passed to protect family farms and the environment from the economic and environmental degradation corporate animal agriculture has inflicted on other states. Amendment E insured that anyone farming in South Dakota was personally responsible for their actions. This court ruling, if it stands, will turn South Dakota into the next North Carolina, with millions of gallons of manure running in our rivers,” she said.

    NOTE FROM THE NEW RULES PROJECT: Although the courts have ruled this proposal unconstitutional we are leaving it in place on the site for archival purposes.

    Section1. That Article XVII of the Constitution of the State of South Dakota be amended by adding thereto new sections to read as follows:

    §21. No corporation or syndicate may acquire, or otherwise obtain an interest, whether legal, beneficial, or otherwise, in any real estate used for farming in this state, or engage in farming. The term, corporation, means any corporation organized under the laws of any state of the United States or any country. The term, syndicate, includes any limited partnership, limited liability partnership, business trust, or limited liability company organized under the laws of any state of the United States or any country. A syndicate does not include general partnerships, except general partnerships in which nonfamily farm syndicates or nonfamily farm corporations are partners. The term, farming, means the cultivation of land for the production of agricultural crops, fruit, or other horticultural products, or the ownership, keeping, or feeding of animals for the production of livestock or livestock products.

    § 22. The restrictions in ¤ 21 of this Article do not apply to:

    (1)A family farm corporation or syndicate. A family farm corporation or syndicate is a corporation or syndicate engaged in farming or the ownership of agricultural land, in which a majority of the partnership interests, shares, stock, or other ownership interests are held by members of a family or a trust created for the benefit of a member of that family. The term, family, means natural persons related to one another within the fourth degree of kinship according to civil law, or their spouses. At least one of the family members in a family farm corporation or syndicate shall reside on or be actively engaged in the day-to-day labor and management of the farm. Day-to-day labor and management shall require both daily or routine substantial physical exertion and administration. None of the corporation’s or syndicate’s partners, members, or stockholders may be nonresident aliens, or other corporations or syndicates, unless all of the stockholders, members, or partners of such entities are persons related within the fourth degree of kinship to the majority of partners, members, or stockholders in the family farm corporation or syndicate;

    (2) Agricultural land acquired or leased, or livestock kept, fed or owned, by a cooperative organized under the laws of any state, if a majority of the shares or other interests of ownership in the cooperative are held by members in the cooperative who are natural persons actively engaged in the day-to-day labor and management of a farm, or family farm corporations or syndicates, and who either acquire from the cooperative, through purchase or otherwise, such livestock, or crops produced on such land, or deliver to the cooperative, through sale or otherwise, crops to be used in the keeping or feeding of such livestock;

    (3) Nonprofit corporations organized under state non-profit corporation law;

    (4)Agricultural land, which, as of the approval date of this amendment, is being farmed, or which is owned or leased, or in which there is a legal or beneficial interest, directly or indirectly owned, acquired, or obtained by a corporation or syndicate, if such land or other interest is held in continuous ownership or under continuous lease by the same such corporation or syndicate. For the purposes of this exemption, land purchased on a contract signed as of the approval date of this amendment is considered as owned on that date;

    (5)Livestock, which as of the approval date of this amendment, is owned by a corporation or syndicate. For the purposes of this exemption, livestock to be produced under contract for a corporation or syndicate are considered as owned, if the contract is for the keeping or feeding of livestock and is signed as of the approval date of this amendment, and if the contract remains in effect and is not terminated by either party to the contract. This exemption does not extend beyond the term of any contract signed as of the approval date of this amendment;

    (6)A farm operated for research or experimental purposes, if any commercial sales from the farm are only incidental to the research or experimental objectives of the corporation or syndicate;

    (7) Land leases by alfalfa processors for the production of alfalfa;

    (8) Agricultural land operated for the purpose of growing seed, nursery plants, or sod;

    (9) Mineral rights on agricultural land;

    (10)Agricultural land acquired or leased by a corporation or syndicate for immediate or potential nonfarming purposes, for a period of five years from the date of purchase. A corporation or syndicate may hold such agricultural land in such acreage as may be necessary to its nonfarm business operation, but pending the development of the agricultural land for nonfarm purposes, such land may not be used for farming except under lease to a family farm corporation or family farm syndicate or a non syndicate or noncorporate farm;

    (11) Agricultural lands or livestock acquired by a corporation or syndicate by process of law in the collection of debts, or by any procedures for the enforcement of a lien, encumbrance, or claim thereon, whether created by mortgage or otherwise. Any lands so acquired shall be disposed of within a period of five years and may not be used for farming before being disposed of, except under a lease to a family farm corporation or syndicate, or a nonsyndicate or noncorporate farm. Any livestock so acquired shall be disposed of within six months;

    (12)Agricultural lands held by a state or nationally chartered bank as trustee for a person, corporation or syndicate that is otherwise exempt from the provisions of sections 21 to 24, inclusive, of this Article;

    (13) A bona fide encumbrance taken for purposes of security;

    (14) Custom spraying, fertilizing, or harvesting;

    (15)Livestock futures contracts, livestock purchased for slaughter within two weeks of the purchase date, or livestock purchased and resold within two weeks.

    § 23. If a family farm corporation or family farm syndicate that has qualified under all the requirements of a family farm corporation or a family farm syndicate ceases to meet the defined criteria, it has twenty years, if the ownership of the majority of the stock of such corporation, or the majority of the ownership interest of such syndicate, continues to be held by persons related to one another within the fourth degree of kinship or their spouses, and their land holdings are not increased, to either requalify as a family farm corporation or family farm syndicate or dissolve and return to personal ownership.

    § 24. Any corporation or syndicate that owns agricultural land or engages in farming is required to report information necessary for the enforcement of sections 21 to 24, inclusive, of this Article to the Secretary of State on an annual basis, under rules promulgated by the Secretary pursuant to state law. The Secretary of State shall monitor such reports and notify the Attorney General of any possible violations, and any resident of the state may also notify the Attorney General of any possible violations. If a corporation or syndicate violates any provision of sections 21 to 24, inclusive, of this Article, the Attorney General shall commence an action in circuit court to enjoin any pending illegal purchase of land or livestock, or to force divestiture of land or livestock held in violation of sections 21 to 24, inclusive, of this Article. The court shall order any land held in violation of sections 21 to 24 of this Article to be divested within two years and any livestock to be divested within six months. If land so ordered by the court has not been divested within two years, the court shall declare the land escheated to the state. If the Attorney General fails to bring an action in circuit court to enforce sections 21 to 24, inclusive, of this Article, any resident of the state has standing in circuit court to sue for enforcement.

    More: