Agri Pulse reports that a federal judge on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of the farm bill’s Swampbuster provision, which puts producers at risk of losing access to farm program benefits if caught destroying protected wetlands. U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams of Iowa’s Northern District wrote in an opinion that Congress has the power to place conditions on federal funding given to farmers.
The case in question involves James Conlan, who bought 71.85 acres of Iowa land in 2022, including nine forested acres that the USDA had concluded were wetlands in 2010. Conlan planned to remove tree stumps and grade and level some of the land. He was told by NRCS representatives that doing so could amount to a wetlands violation because it could enable agricultural production on the land, he wrote in a court declaration. Conlan argued in a lawsuit that “the federal government has unconstitutionally taken farmers’ land for wetland conservation without paying them just compensation.” He also claimed Swampbuster violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause because his farm’s wetlands have no connection to interstate commerce.
However, Williams wrote in his ruling that producers voluntarily accept USDA benefits and in return, agree not to destroy or alter wetlands. Swampbuster “does not independently take anything from, or require anything of, the landowner,” the judge added.