Banning Corporate Ownership – South Dakota
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.… Read More