After A 2-Year Court Battle Michigan Organic Farmer Baker’s Pigs Are Now Legal

Baker Family

After 2-Year Court Battle Baker’s Pigs Now Legal

Farm To Consumer Legal Defense Fund,  March 4, 2014

Judge Orders DNR to Leave Farmer Alone

Lake City, Michigan—(March 4, 2014 – Globe Newswire)—Two years after suing the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) over the legality of its swine Invasive Species Order (ISO), Mark Baker is now free to raise and sell his hybrid heritage breed pigs. In a February 26, 2014 hearing, less than two weeks before a scheduled March 11, 2014 trial date, DNR backed off its prior position that Baker’s pigs were illegal, in order to avoid the lawsuit trial.

During the hearing Assistant Attorney General Harold Martin stated to Judge William Fagerman that Baker’s Russian boar hybrids do not violate the ISO. With the pigs’ legality no longer in dispute, the judge granted the department’s motion to dismiss Baker’s lawsuit. Even though Baker’s pigs are now legal, he lost the opportunity to challenge the constitutionality of the ISO for more than 2000 other Michigan heritage breed hog farmers. The judge dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning the DNR cannot take any future action against Baker for the pigs he is now raising on his farm.

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