Gov. Jared Polis signed SB25-128 “Agricultural Worker Service Providers Access Private Property”, into law last week at Marc Arnusch Farms near Keenesburg. It was a righting of a major wrong brought in 2021 as part of SB21-087, “Agricultural Workers’ Rights”, known as the Farmworker Bill of Rights.

The portion of the 2021 law, sponsored by Sen. Jessie Danielson and Rep. Karen McCormick, that was righted was the portion that allowed service providers nearly unfettered access to employees during working hours. It allowed trespassing and was a significant blow to private property rights.

This year, sponsors Sen. Byron Pelton and Rep. McCormick worked to protect private property rights and the health and safety of farm workers, and the loosely defined service providers. All this was done in the wake of a major U.S. Supreme Court decision, Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. The term service provider is broad and can also include union activists as was the case in a Supreme Court case in California that set a precedent for Colorado’s misguided provision to be rectified. In a June 2021 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed the government cannot force people to allow third parties to trespass on their property.

In Cedar Point v Hassid, union activists entered Cedar Point Nursery where workers were tending to strawberry plants in 2015. Shouting into bullhorns, the activists pressured farm workers to join the United Farm Workers union. The farm owner didn’t grant permission to the union to enter and was unaware of their plans to do so. However, he was legally unable to tell them to leave because of a California law that allows union activists to enter private property to recruit members. It was a win for private property rights and a win for farm workers who didn’t want to be accosted by bullhorn-wielding recruiters at their workplace.

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Pelton and McCormick’s bill also protects food safety and, in turn, protects the food supply. Farms, ranches, dairies and other ag operations rely on biosecurity protocols to stop the spread of disease and to protect access to areas where food is grown, processed and sent into the food supply.

Allowing service providers to access farms willy-nilly is more than just an assault on food safety, but on common sense and the safety of those entering the property. Farm workers have been trained on the inherent risks on ag operations, from tractors to irrigation canals, and allowing third party access is asking for trouble. Federal laws regulate visitor access to these areas on private property, which can be done while still allowing employees access to service providers. Agricultural producers, of course, support access to service providers, which can include health-care professionals, clergy, food-pantry representatives, philanthropic groups volunteering to teach workers English, and most anything else that fit the broad definition. However, casting food-safety concerns and federal regulations borne of expertise and extensive research to the side by allowing unrestricted service provider access during work hours, is unreasonable.

The bill, signed into law in Arnusch’s shop is a significant win and a demonstration of the willingness of the governor and some of the sponsors of the previous bill to recognize fault and correct it.

Arnusch said the bill is an example of what good government does.

“When they recognize that something is wrong, or something has happened that can be fixed, it happened,” he said. “There were a lot of people around the table, around the process that ensued, and at the end of the day our government isn’t bad as you think because we got this one right.”

Arnusch said in 2021, the portion of SB21-087 that legalized trespass was a major concern of agriculture groups across commodities and communities. Despite the concerted and cooperative efforts of those groups to strike that portion of the bill, he said there was a portion of legislators who just weren’t hearing the concerns. When it went into effect, he said it set off a litany of consequences and Colorado Farm Bureau saw unencumbered access to private property as allowed by this law simply couldn’t continue. The liability issues, he said, were crippling for the landowner.

After 21-087 became law, three farmers, Arnusch, Bruce Talbott, a peach grower from Palisade, and the Rock family in Wray, sued the governor’s office to remove the legalized trespass portion of the law. The farmers said it was unconstitutional and a government overreach. Arnusch said the litigation has become bogged down and a judge still hasn’t ruled, making the bill signing right there on his farm all the more significant. It is, he said, a vitally important repeal for agriculture and an example of some lawmakers willing to admit a wrong and make it right.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.