Between 950 and 1,000 dead pigs were found Monday on a Fulton County farm where they had apparently been abandoned months ago to die of starvation. Humane Society Police Officer Dennis Bumbaugh said he has never seen anything like it before. He said the incident may be the largest of its kind in Pennsylvania's history.

CELDF Note: The title of this newspaper report says it all: "Lehigh Township RESTRICTS factory farms." The sub-title could more accurately read: "Municipality admits its residents have no right to local self-government; ordinance seeks loopholes in agribusiness-friendly state law." Absent an assertion of rights, this ordinance looks doomed to nullification by the corporate-friendly state attorney general's office under Act 38. But without consent of the governed, the state laws Lehigh officials are attempting to skirt remain illegitimate and, alas, unchallenged.

The Peach Bottom Township board of supervisors is studying an agricultural ordinance proposed by a resident that would give the township more power in regulating farming operations.

Commonwealth Court has dismissed a third lawsuit in which Attorney General Tom Corbett challenged a township ordinance under a 2005 law intended to ease conflicts between homeowners and large-scale farms.

John R. Walker, president judge of the Franklin/Fulton County Court of Common Pleas, recently upheld a township's authority to prohibit corporate involvement in farming.

A court case expected to play a major role in determining the nature of agriculture in Pennsylvania has cost nearly a quarter million dollars so far. The case is attracting big money from agribusiness, and interest from two other Fulton County townships that passed similar ordinances. Amy Van Blarcom-Lackey, director of governmental affairs for PennAg Industries, recently told a gathering of dairy producers from across the state: "We're a year and a half into it. Our legal bills are ($226,000). We don't even have a result yet."