Dear Members & Friends,
On Feb. 5th we received a registered letter from the Washington County Appraisal District (WCAD) giving us a NOTICE OF DENIAL for 2007 Agriculture Exemption, stating that the reason our “Property does not meet the degree of intensity requirements as set out in the 2007 WCAD Guidelines for 1-d-1 Ag Use.”
We are entitled to protest this denial before the Appraisal Review Board. We are writing to you, our customers and friends, asking you to support us in preparing our case. If you can prepare a letter to the Appraisal Review Board, stating how you as our customer or associate have benefited from our services in any way, this will help us in our defense that we are a legitimate small family farm that is securing our livelihoods in commercial agriculture.
We see the challenge that we have before us as an opportunity to teach our county appraisal district about the local food economy and the future of sustainable farming. We realize that our production methods and direct to customer sales are a new concept for conventional agriculture, and we hope to promote this new and unique opportunity for small family farmers across Texas. This battle may have a big impact, not just for our family, and for yours, but for Washington County and possibly the whole state.
We write this letter to you, because we need your support. We need our community to stand with us as we work on this issue. If our family farm loses our Ag Exemption, there is a good chance that we may not be able to financially afford to stay in business. We need your help in securing our right to produce and sale fresh local food. We need you to stand with us. Please take a few minutes to write a letter to the Washington County Appraisal Review Board telling them how our small family farm benefits your lives. This letter needs to be sent to us so that we may add it to the material we are compiling for our defense. DO NOT send your letter durectly to the WCAD.
Yours in the harvest & thanks for the support!
Farmer Brad & Jenny
Please send your letters to our address:
The Stufflebeam Family
HOME sweet FARM
7800 FM 2502
Brenham, TX 77833
1 comment:
This is a terrible thing the government is doing to you and your family. I'm sorry.
I was recently searching the net looking for homemade cheese recipes and somehow I ended up surfing organic gardening and ended up here. :) I think this is wonderful and you aren't even that far from my house. A couple hours maybe.
It's terrible how they only give you the option to be big and chemical infested. The little guys always seem to get forgotten in the mix. If our government bothered to assist these small ventures other farmers might follow suit and the need for pesticides might actually decrease.
I'm beginning to ramble. Good luck with this, I hope the outcome is good.
Katherine
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