By Drew Adams
Murray, KY – An environmental group is suing a pair of Purchase area farmers over subsidies they received during a two-year period for growing corn and soybeans in LBL. Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics want a judge to order farmers Kerry Underhill and Bobby Cunningham to pay between $5,500 and $11,000 per day for each day they received subsidies. The group claims both were farming the land without a valid lease from the U.S. Forest Service.
The Oregon-based environmental group also wants an injunction stopping the farmers from filing for more subsidies without a lease with the government. At issue is whether Underhill Farms in Cadiz, and Cunningham Farms in Murray, should have been eligible for federal farm subsidies on their crops between Jan. 1, 2008 and March 19, 2010. The environmental organization said the two had leases with the National Wild Turkey Federation, not the U.S. Forest Service, making them ineligible for subsidies. U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell in Paducah unsealed the lawsuit Friday afternoon after the federal government declined to intervene in the case.
Earlier this year Russell struck down the agreement between the government and the federation. Russell ruled that the Forest Service could not delegate its power to enter into lease agreements with private entities.