California has a habit of regulating residents into the dirt and then punishing them for being in the dirt. No one is forced to take it on the chin more than the state’s farmers.

A new California law permits agricultural commissioners to hand out fines of $1,000 per acre for vineyards or orchards that are considered to be a “nuisance.” As the logic goes, those abandoned fields become hosts for disease and house pests that antagonize surrounding crops or communities.