Two weeks after the Ninth Circuit Court’s decision to keep the Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC) open while the court considers its appeal, a group of local food and agriculture supporters have filed an amicus brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the oyster farm.
The brief was submitted by Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, the Marin and Sonoma County Farm Bureaus, California Farm Bureau Federation, Marin Organic, Food Democracy Now, Alliance for Local Sustainable Agriculture, the Hayes Street Grill and Stacy Carlsen, Agriculture Commissioner for the County of Marin.
The group provides examples of local implications if the farm was ordered to close:
- The shellfish produced in Drakes Estero are important to the local economy and since there are no other options in California to relocate the oyster beds, the supply would be disrupted.
- Many restaurants and businesses will lose the feature of providing local and sustainable resources.
- Other California shellfish growers will be required to pay higher fees or receive reduced State services if DBOC was shut down.
- The local school will lose value on its work to close the achievement gap if the children of the workers living on the oyster farm are evicted.
The brief also addresses the issue of the National Park Service’s use of misrepresented science in the Environment Impact Statement that led to the decision to shut down the farm.
Cause of Action, Stoel Rives, LLP, and Briscoe Ivester & Basel, LLP, filed an opening brief in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on behalf of Drakes Bay Oyster Company (DBOC). The court is scheduled to hear this appeal challenge on May 14.
The amicus brief can be found here.
