We wrote about the situation Szymon Kluka, a pig producer from Grodzisk, in the Rzgów commune near Łódź, in farmer.pl in January last year. For 13 years, the farmer has been fighting in offices and courts for the possibility of conducting normal agricultural activities on the farm he took over from his parents, because the smells from his pigsty bother the neighbours. The case has finally reached a court conclusion, but this is another decision to the disadvantage of the farmer.
Farmer's appeal rejected
The Court of Appeal in Łódź has just ruled that the District Court was right and the farmer is using his property excessively, which has a negative impact on his neighbours. The farmer's fault comes down to the fact that he built a modern pigsty in place of an old barn and is producing pigs. Unfortunately, the smells from his farm are bothering two neighbours. – One neighbour who sued me no longer lives here, and the other neighbours recently built on a plot of land purchased from her 50 metres from me. Their plot is not adjacent to mine, but it is the second one on the road – explains Szymon Kluka.
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Farmer has been fighting in court for 12 years because his pigsty is bothering his neighbours
Host Restrictions
The owner has to pay the neighbors compensation in the amount of PLN 30,000, and in addition cover considerable legal costs. He also has to fulfill a whole list of recommendations regarding the development of his property and further cultivation. For example, he has to plant a 5-meter strip of thuja and privet around his property.
-This way I will lose access to the silo, so I don't know how I will continue with crop production. There will be no way to drive and maneuver machines – complains a farmer from Grodzisk.
-The court orders me to use "materials with low odor nuisance and causing lower emission of odorous substances" in animal production. The way to reduce emissions is to add animal feed to the pigs, but fish meal, for example, will cause a greater stench – says Szymon Kluka. -At the same time, the court orders me to frequently disinfect and wash the pigsty, but "to limit the amount of water used to wash the livestock buildings to the necessary minimum". How to do this? – he asks.
From now on, the farmer must also "avoid conducting activities that are burdensome in terms of smell in the evenings and on non-working days", and remove manure or slurry only on cloudy days and taking into account the wind direction. – How can you work normally and run a farm with such restrictions – the farmer laments.
The farm has been there for generations
Szymon Kluka built the facility in 2013 in accordance with the permit and the pigsty passed the technical acceptance. It is a pigsty in the slatted system, equipped with electronically controlled ventilation, channels and a tank for slurry. Compared to the barn, where his father kept an average of 120 pigs and at the same time fattened 10 cattle on bedding, this is a huge technological progress and certainly much less odor nuisance. The local development plan prohibits the construction of facilities in the village above 50 DJP, but the farmer built a pigsty only for 360 pigs in the open cycle.
-It was irrelevant to the court that my farm had existed and operated in this place for many generations, and pigs, cows and chickens had always been bred there – says Szymon Kluka. -More important is the interest of the newly settled residents in the village, who moved here from the city. They were aware that my farm existed and operated when they bought the plot and built the house.
Life experience was the deciding factor
However, as we read in the justification of the Court of Appeal's ruling, the odour nuisance was supposed to have arisen only when the farmer built a new pigsty. According to the court, a pigsty for 360 pigs is already industrial-scale production and as such can cause emissions.
– According to the verdict, it is supposed to be an above-average emission, although there is no official measure for odour. The opinions of several experts appointed by the District Court spoke in my favour, saying that my activity is not burdensome, but according to the Court of Appeal, the ruling in my case was rightly based on life experience and logic. Whose life experience should decide whether a farmer can continue to be a farmer? – asks Kluka.
More than a decade of fighting for the pigsty
The fact that the pigsty meets the requirements of the local development plan and has a lower than permitted density was of no significance for the ruling. Similarly, the fact that the Chief Inspectorate of Building Control had previously rejected as unfounded the applications of the plaintiffs to invalidate the building permit for the pigsty. Kluka's neighbour had undertaken such efforts even before the construction of the pigsty had begun, and the newly settled residents had continued them. The civil lawsuit was only a consequence of the closure of the administrative proceedings. Hence the total of 13 years of the farmer's fight for his pigsty.
The village as a bedroom for the city
The District Court did – it dismissed the plaintiffs' request that the farmer reduce the pig density to 10 DJP, because this would interfere too much with his ownership rights. However, the fact that Grodzisko is a village just outside Łódź, whose residents are increasingly settling in nearby villages, was important for the judges. Also important was the fact that there are only two farms left in Grodzisko that still produce something. Farmers – in the court's opinion – should take this into account…
Immission is good for everything
"Charging a farmer-breeder conducting production activities, supervised by various types of inspections that find no irregularities in his conduct, with administrative penalties resulting from the dissatisfaction of people who have fled the stench of the city to the countryside and do not accept the natural smells and sounds of the countryside, is not only a legal absurdity. It is a precedent that will be cited by subsequent settlers of the countryside who are dissatisfied with their surroundings. This is the beginning of the end of small farming," Szymon Kluka rightly warns in a letter to our editorial office.
Until now, the regulations on immissions, or the adverse impact of one property on its neighbours, were invoked in cases not related to villages and agriculture. For example, it concerned a situation where a newly built block of flats deprives the residents of a neighbouring block of daylight, or the noise from a nightclub keeps the tenants of a tenement house awake. The ruling that conducting ordinary agricultural production in the countryside also constitutes immission is therefore a dangerous precedent for all ordinary farmers who have become a minority in Polish villages, not only those in the vicinity of large cities.
Last call for farmers
-This verdict is the final alarm bell for agriculture. When subsequent courts start to refer to the ruling from Łódź, in a moment no pigsty or barn will be safe – warns the well-known agricultural activist Janusz Terka. -A stone's throw from Szymon Kluka's farm begins the Piotrków district, which is a center of pig production. There, breeders also have neighbors who are not farmers and this is the case throughout Poland. This verdict may turn out to be the final nail in the coffin for all individual animal breeders.
The precedent-setting ruling – as Janusz Terka argues – also poses a huge threat to other industries related to agriculture, such as slaughterhouses and processing plants. In the lawsuit, the neighbors complained not only about unpleasant odors, but also about the squealing of pigs during loading and unloading, and the noise of agricultural machinery.
Need for quick action
-We have been publicizing the case of Szymon Kluka for over a year. At that time, we informed the District Court about the unfavorable verdict, agricultural chambers and the Ministry of Agriculture. As you can see, it did not help. Now, we have also notified the KRIR, industry organizations, unions, Minister Czesław Siekierski and the EU Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski about the rejected appeal. Everyone has promised to take care of the case and declared their help – says Janusz Terka, an activist of Solidarity RI and a pig producer from the Piotrków district. – As long as it is not too late.
-Here, not only ad hoc action is needed in connection with the case of this specific farmer, but also quick action at the statutory level. This court ruling shows that the law in no way protects the farmer as a producer, nor the countryside as a place where food is produced.
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Work begins on the so-called odour law affecting agricultural investments
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Work on the odor law is still ongoing! It is to come into force next year