Right to Farm Laws: A Thematic Analysis

Abstract

Sociological research has devoted scant attention to the state-specific laws and their impact on agriculture and rural communities in the United States. This proposal analyzes Right- to-Farm laws, statutes that exist in every state with the proposed purpose of protecting agricultural operations from nuisance suits. This thesis identifies shared and divergent themes in Right-to-Farm and develops a Corporate Agriculture State Spectrum to highlight which statutes are more accommodating to industrial agricultural operations. This research is heavily grounded in legal literature and agrifood studies. I use a political economic framework to understand the purpose and intention of these, and contribute to literature on corporate agriculture.