Comment: This sounds like an Old West story, like "Shane" or "Pale Rider" or "Open Range"--one of those ones where rich ranchers or mine owners want the land of powerless homesteaders or something. Or, more recently, this sounds like something that's happening now in Amazonian Brazil or Ecuador, or even around fracking operations in thousands of places right here in the gas lands of the USA 

The crops may change, times may change, but powerful, well-monied agricultural and ranching interests always seem to be exempted from the laws of human community. Extractive industries have always set the tone for land use in the West, have always had a disproportional influence on state politics and policy.

It's a dirty, crying shame what's happening to these folks.