Tom DeWeese is president of American Policy Center.  Tom is one of the nation’s leading advocates of individual liberty, free enterprise, private property rights, personal privacy, back-to-basics education, American sovereignty and independence and protecting our constitutionally-guaranteed rights.

Tom began by explaining non-governmental organizations, otherwise known as NGO’s.    They’re experts at pushing various policies and issues along with the grants to tell recipients to apply for.  They pressure city council members, county commissioners and even state legislators to put whatever policies the NGO’s have in mind, in place.  Jim noted how even the media gets involved in this so that when a community or a state rejects one of these offers, they tell listeners/viewers how certain funding has been turned down, making it appear as though it was a bad decision.  What they don’t explain is the part about how that community or state has their hands tied if the money is accepted.  In other words, that community or state has now lost control at some level.

The latest trick has to do with getting citizens to voluntarily surrender a level of control of their land.  It involves land trusts such as the Sierra Club, the Nature Conservancy and others who are pushing for farmers to sign what are called, “conservation easements.”  These are being offered with the promise that if they sign, the farmer will no longer have to worry about developers taking their land.  

It may sound good on the surface, but one problem is that the land trusts have the farmers sign these easements in perpetuity.  Conversely, the land trusts aren’t tied to the perpetuity clause.  They can buy, sell or trade these conservation easements with other organizations or even with the government.  This means that if another land trust takes over, the rules might change meaning the farmer may not know exactly what they can do with or grow on their land. 

How might this affect the value of the land if the farmer wants to sell it?  Is there a connection between these conservation easements and carbon capture pipelines or wind and solar farms?  What does this mean for the future of the family farm?  Get the answers to these and other questions on this critical edition of Crosstalk.

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