H5 Ranches in Tyler on March 22, 2023. (Tyler Morning Telegraph File)

Texas voters will decide Nov. 7 whether to enshrine the right to farm in the state constitution.

Proposition No. 1 would amend the constitution to protect the day-to-day practices of farming, ranching, timber production and wildlife management, according to the Texas Farm Bureau, one of the agricultural organizations supporting the measure.

The measure also aims to protect agricultural operations from urban encroachment.

Some farmers in metropolitan areas have faced issues posed by city zoning requirements. If passed, the proposition would allow farmers to continue their operations within city limits, said Grant Davis, the Rusk County AgriLife extension agent.

“Let’s just say that a municipality has an ordinance on how high your grass can be,” Davis said. “If there’s somebody that has a hay pasture, their grass is going to be higher than that because they’re trying to produce as much grass and as much forage as they can for their crops or to sell or whatever. That (proposition) would protect them so that they would still be able to use the land for the purpose that they bought it for.”

A dispute over grass height ordinances sprang up in 2021 in Farmers Branch near Dallas. City officials claimed that vacant lots with tall grass in the city limits were a nuisance, and they hired contractors to mow them down, CBS News Texas reported. A hay grower, however, said he was planning to bale the grass.

While the state question would protect the right to farming and ranching, it wouldn’t permit unlawful farming practices, Davis said.

“It’s generally protected ag methods such as farming hay or corn or raising livestock,” Davis said. “It’s a very simple bill in a lot of ways. It protects farmers and ranchers so that they are able to keep their livelihood and keep the land that they may have had for generations.”

The state Legislature and local governments would be able to impose regulations on farming and ranching if those entities present “clear and convincing evidence” that the regulation is needed to protect public health, according to the text of the measure.

Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening said the proposition is a “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to protect the state’s agricultural future.

“Less than 2% of the U.S. population farms and ranches. That number grows smaller each year,” he said in an article on the organization’s website. “Just like our other constitutional rights, Proposition 1 will protect the minority — Texas farmers and ranchers — to ensure we can continue to feed the majority. That’s why we need to preserve these rights in the Texas Constitution.”

Numerous state agricultural advocacy organizations support the measure, but a handful are lobbying against it. The Farm & Ranch Freedom Alliance claims the measure is too broad and would give “agricultural operations a blank check to be bad neighbors,” the organization states in an unattributed post on its website.

The organization said it does support the idea of blocking burdensome regulations from being imposed on farmers.

“The problem is that big agribusiness uses this legitimate issue to push overreaching laws that are more properly labeled “right to harm” than right to farm,” the organization states on its website. “Small farmers are being used as the poster children for these laws, which give big businesses the unfettered right to spray toxic chemicals and confine tens or hundreds of thousands of animals in a small area, polluting the air and water.”

Early voting continues through Nov. 3.