A federal judge is allowing the North Dakota Farmers Union to enter the legal battle over the constitutionality of the state’s Depression-era anti-corporate farming law.
That means Farmers Union will side with the state against North Dakota Farm Bureau, which sued last summer to do away with the law. The two organizations are the state’s largest general farm groups.
Farm Bureau contends the law passed by voters in 1932 to protect the state’s family farming heritage actually hurts the agriculture industry by limiting farmers’ business options.
Farmers Union maintains that family farming is the backbone of North Dakota agriculture.
Judge Daniel Hovland says Farmers Union has a legitimate interest in the case, and should be heard.
Hovland also is letting the Dakota Resource Council environmental group help defend the law.
