FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM: Property rights advocate Martha Boneta is attending the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
The Republican National Convention in Cleveland is not Martha Boneta’s first time in the spotlight, but she still marvels that she can’t just spend her days quietly on the family farm.
“I just wanted a farm and to be left alone,” she said in an interview with Watchdog.org. “The American dream.”
Things didn’t quite work out that way for the self-described “crunchy conservative” who owns and operates the aptly named Liberty Farms in Paris, Virginia.
“They shut me down because I had a birthday party for eight 10-year-olds,” Boneta said of the genesis of her long-running difficulties with overweening local officials who tried to block her from selling vegetables produced on her own land.
Boneta, who grew up the youngest of three girls, says she continues to face harassment. Spot inspections in which officials photographed the closets of her home, toilets and personal possessions were commonplace. At one point, she said, she was threatened with fines of $15,000 a day if she continued to farm and invite the public onto her property.
Allies in the liberty movement rallied to her cause, and more than 17,000 Virginians took notice, signing petitions and joining Boneta in her fight to operate the farm the way she saw fit.
“We’ve ignited a little tsunami of activism work,” said Boneta. “And it crossed party lines.”
BEE PREPARED: Honey is just one of the crops produced at Liberty Farms in Paris, Virginia.
Boneta says that since her own brush with big government, it is apparent to her that every citizen is at risk of having their individual rights and privacy invaded. She speaks across the country to that end when she isn’t caring for the 280 animals or growing veggies and herbs on her on her farm, which also produces raw honey, organic vegetables and “heirloom tomatoes.”
“Sometimes people call me a ‘crunchy conservative’ because we are part of the sustainable food movement,” said Boneta. “I break down the image of conservatives not caring about the environment or contributing to the local food shed.”
Her struggles with local officials and environmental activists helped inspire a pair of property rights bills signed into law in Virginia, one of which bears her name.
The experience lit a political fire in her that Boneta says will not be extinguished.
“Without the ability to work hard and have property rights, we are lost as a country,” said Boneta. “Property rights are really one of our last bastions of freedom.”
Boneta has been featured on Fox & Friends, Neil Cavuto, Greta Van Susteren’s On The Record, The John Stossel Show, Virginia Farming and others, and she was in her element Monday on media row at the Republican convention.
“I’m seeing energized citizens, energized voters. I’m seeing great unity,” said Boneta. “We’re at a critical time in our lives. We will be reading about this election not only now but for generations to come.”
And she is prepared for the next battle against what she calls “tyrannical government overreach.”
“I grew up in a family that raised me to believe that when I grew up I could be whatever I wanted to be. I never thought we would work so hard and sacrifice so much and yet encounter miles and miles of red tape, over-regulation and abuse of power,” said Boneta.