A new Vermont Supreme Court decision is making waves in the farming and cannabis industries.
Neighbors Stephen and Sharon Wille Padnos appealed two Environmental Court decisions granting summary judgment to landowner Jason Struthers. That court ruled that the city of Essex Junction can't regulate his duck raising and cannabis cultivation operations since they're exempt from municipal bylaw under Vermont's Required Agricultural Practices Rule and state law.
"We hold that neither statute exempts landowner's operations from all municipal regulation and thus reverse the Environmental Division's decisions and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion," the Supreme Court said in a decision issued Friday.
Rural Vermont and the Vermont Agency of Agriculture are leading an effort to try to override the decision via legislation. The case now will go back to Environmental Court. The Vermont Growers Association called the decision "deeply concerning, not only for the state's hundreds of licensed outdoor cultivators but also for the very essence of being a right-to-farm state and the over 30,000 farms across the state."
Read more at Green Mountain State