A New Jersey family trying to save their 175-year-old farm from being seized by a local government is getting support from the Trump administration.
The Cranbury city government announced its intention to seize the 21-acre farm through eminent domain in order to build low-income apartments, but the Henry family is resisting.
‘The Biden-style government takeover of our family farms is over.’
On Tuesday, Agriculture Sec. Brooke Rollins said the power of the federal government would intercede in the case on the side of the family.
“On the phone with Andy Henry of Highland Ranch in Cranbury, NJ. The city govt has approved seizing his 175-year-old family farm via eminent domain for affordable housing units,” wrote Rollins.
“Whether the Maudes, the Henrys or others whom we will soon announce, the Biden-style government takeover of our family farms is over,” she added. “While this particular case is a city eminent domain issue, we @usda are exploring every legal option to help.”
Andy Henry says he has received many multimillion-dollar offers for the farm, but he has denied all of them.
“Didn’t matter how much money we were offered,” Henry said. “We saved the farm no matter what. We turned down all the offers to preserve the legacy for our family, city, and even state.”
In April, he received a letter from the Cranbury Township Committee telling him that he can either accept an offer or the farm would be taken by eminent domain.
Eminent domain is a power of the government that is enumerated in the U.S. Constitution, but its application has been significantly expanded, improperly according to critics, to include seizures that indirectly benefit the government through increased taxes.
“My family sacrificed on this land for 175 years,” Henry added. “All the other farms disappeared. We did not. We will not.”
He says he will fight the township at every step to keep the farm.
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