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Joe Barker is losing his home. His front yard will become an onramp for the new U.S. Route 24, which will connect Fort Wayne, Ind. to Toledo. Portions of seven farms his family operates in Paulding County will be lost. Some will be cut in half. But that's not why he's fighting.

Barker, an Ohio Farm Bureau Federation member, is quick to admit he was disappointed when he learned that he would lose so much to the project. The inconveniences of having contiguous pieces of land split by a highway are numerous. But Barker said the highway is a needed improvement; that it's for the public good.

Now, Barker is faced with losing even more land. More importantly, he feels he is being stripped of his rights as a private property owner. This time it's not about public good, he said, it’s about money.

Barker is being told to hand over his farmland so that a railroad spur can be constructed to service FSC&E, a local private business that distributes automotive parts. The spur would split yet another of Barker's fields.

"We entertained the idea to sell, but not for very long. It just wasn't a good business decision for us to do that," Barker said.

Since first declining to sell, Barker said he has faced three years of gut wrenching, frustrating uncertainty. During that time, the Paulding County Economic Development and the Antwerp Community Improvement Corporation made repeated attempts to persuade Barker to give up his land but eventually turned the situation over to the railroad. Twice Barker discovered survey crews on his property without notification.

"Everybody has an attachment to land," Barker said. "For us it’s what you do for a living, how you earn a living, it's the pride in what you do all wrapped into one. And when you have people wanting to take that from you, especially for selfish reasons, it's alarming."

Earlier this year, Barker learned that the railroad had completed an appraisal of his land. A few months later, he received a letter from the railroad stating that it intended to take the property by eminent domain.

At the beginning of this month, tractors towing grain wagons brimming with soybeans pulled in and out of the grain elevator in Antwerp. Across the street is a railroad access point that services FSC&E. Without the railroad spur, the business has to haul shipments by truck to the access point, which is about a mile away.

For Barker, that's not enough to warrant a spur. As a township trustee, he said he is optimistic about what his community has to offer. But he disagrees with proponents of the proposed spur who say it will attract businesses to the area.

"Why aren't there cottage industries (along the railroad) right now," he said.

Barker said businesses would be discouraged from locating next to the spur because they would have to drive around three blocks and through a school zone to access the new highway. He also questions what would happen if FSC&E relocates or goes out of business, noting that a spur would cause irrevocable damage to the land.

"I could earn a living off this farm and the others for the next 30 years," said Barker, whose family has been farming since 1856. He said his two children, ages 15 and 16, have also shown an interest in agriculture, and a lifetime of inefficiencies caused by the railroad spur is not worth it. Besides, Barker said he doesn't want to sell real estate – he wants to farm.

Barker received another blow in June when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Kelo case that eminent domain could be used to take private property for private economic development.

"We were anxiously awaiting that case feeling that would be the ace in the hole on this," he said. "It's not the decision we wanted, but it made the nation aware of what was going on."

In Ohio, Sens. Timothy Grendell and Kim Zurz have responded to the ruling by introducing Senate Bill 167, which would impose a two-year ban on local governments using eminent domain to obtain private property for private development.

"I believe we need to overhaul Ohio's eminent domain statute completely," Grendell said.

To do that, the legislation would create a study group that Grendell said would include Farm Bureau to review Ohio's eminent domain law.

"I think our approach is very smart and responsible," Zurz said. "We have to keep in mind that eminent domain is a tool that sometimes we will have to use."

OFBF Executive Vice President Jack Fisher testified in support of the bill this month before a Senate committee, which passed the legislation later that day. The Ohio Senate unanimously passed the bill later that week.

"Landowners in the United States have said enough is enough, and we welcome them on board in the fight against this monster called eminent domain," Fisher testified. "Rather than reacting in a knee-jerk fashion, Senate Bill 167 allows time to thoroughly examine the law and provide the best fix."

During his testimony, Fisher said eminent domain is no longer being used as a last resort and that government agencies are using the threat of eminent domain to get their way. He noted that Ohio law provides 72 different agencies with the power of eminent domain.

Barker praised the response of Farm Bureau at the county and state level.

"It's encouraging to see that we have people willing to go to bat for agriculture," he said.

Barker, who had also testified in support of the legislation, said that until the bill becomes law, the family remains vulnerable to losing its farm for the benefit of another person.

"We never know what the timeline is," Barker said. "We hear nothing and then see a survey crew."

Caption: Barker points out the location of the proposed rail spur, which would require him to give up a 50-foot by 1,400-foot strip of land. Photo by Seth Teter