To the editor:

The debates surrounding the Board of Health’s animal site registry regulation and the pending petition to amend the Right to Farm Bylaw under Article III at Town Meeting have become so intertwined and contentious that the essential facts seem to have been lost.  Let’s take a moment to remind ourselves of those facts.

The Massachusetts Association of Health Boards states: “Livestock inspections are performed to protect the economic resource they represent. Livestock inspections also ensure that animal diseases will not affect the human populations.”  Everyone in Westport wants farmers to prosper. Everyone also wants to be protected from livestock viruses and bacteria that can decimate herds and rapidly spread to humans. 

The animal site registry requires only that a livestock owner file a one-page, one-time, no-fee form that reports the owner’s contact information and the types and estimated numbers of animals on a property. The Agricultural Commission is designated to act as a mediator in the event of a dispute in regard to the filing. 

Its public health and safety purpose is two-fold. It’s estimated that a hundred or more properties with animals have never been inspected in accordance with the state’s annual inspection (“barn book”) program that checks on animals’ health and the conditions under which they are kept.

The registry information would be available to state-approved inspectors to ensure those missing and future sites get inspected.  Secondly, Board of Health staff are the first responders to animal related public health and safety concerns. In the past six months alone, staff responded to 60 livestock related incidents  Being able to contact owners and having basic information about their livestock will assist the Board in doing its job and facilitate communication.

The petitioners disagree with the Board’s reasoning for the registry and assert that filing the simple form violates their right to farm. I had hoped that further discussion on how the registry would be implemented could address their concerns. Instead, the petitioners have taken a step that is likely to only intensify our differences and diminish the community’s public health protection and overall finances.

The petitioners would ban all town agencies from permitting or pre-approving any agricultural or farming activity except tenant farms.  The ban would not only void the Board of Health’s long-standing swine, equine, and private well siting regulations, but also impair the authority of, for example, the Select Board, Building Department and Conservation Commission. This was one of the reasons Town Counsel concluded that the petition was in direct conflict with state law. 

Petitioners would further prohibit any town inspections, regulations, guidelines or “restrictions of any kind” that “deviate in any way from existing Massachusetts General Law.” This provision is so broad and vague that agencies would not know how to proceed or farmers know what to expect, fostering confusion, disputes, and litigation that will waste tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars.  

Lastly, a property would no longer have to be primarily used for agriculture to be considered a farm entitled to the protection of the Right to Farm bylaw. Treating every lot that has a farm animal, grows vegetables or builds a barn as a “farm” is inconsistent with the intent of Westport’s and other farm communities’ bylaw to support and protect those who farm for a living. 

As the person who worked directly with the farmers’ spokespeople over the last six months with the goal of reaching an accommodation, I am disheartened that we have arrived at the impasse that produced such a problem-ridden proposal. What the Attorney General’s Office will do when it reviews the petition is uncertain. Whatever the result, the proposal expresses a deep lack of trust, not only in the Board of Health, but in all town agencies’ capability to fairly perform their responsibilities.  Its passage will be a blow to the cohesion that all successful communities depend upon.  Let’s take a step back and commit to working through our differences. 

Phil Weinberg

Westport Board of Health