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Wood County Farm Challenging Newly Passed Lake Erie Bill Of Rights

drewesfarms.com

Supporters of the Lake Erie Bill of Rights approved by Lucas County voters on Tuesday will have to defend it in court.  

The owners of Drewes Farms in Custar filed a federal lawsuit, calling the measure unconstitutional.  It allows people the right to sue polluters and the suit claims the family farm would be at risk of financial ruin if fertilizer runoff gets into the water. The Lake Erie Bill of Rights is the first rights-based law in the United States that specifically acknowledges the rights of a distinct ecosystem, according to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which helped craft the language. The law follows the Rights of Nature movement that inspired New Zealand’s 2014 granting legal personhood to the Te Urewera forest and India’s courts ruling in 2017 that the Ganges and Yamuna rivers have rights to thrive.

Jim has been with WCBE since 1996. Before that he worked as a reporter at another Columbus radio station, and for three newspapers in Southwest Florida.
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