"Really?" objected one local man on Facebook.

"We’re not aligned with Cliven Bundy's politics," a spokeswoman said.

Editor's note: On April 29, a Bundy family member and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds announced the Cliven Bundy appearance had been cancelled.

Cliven Bundy is expected to visit Mansfield in the coming weeks.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds announced Thursday on Facebook that it would host the rancher and "land-rights" activist as part of the company's annual Spring Planting Festival, planned for May 5 and 6.

Since 1997, Baker Creek has made its name selling seeds without any genetic modifications to farmers and gardeners in Missouri and across the country — along with charitable giving close to home and around the world.

Bundy is best known for a standoff at his Nevada ranch in 2014. Along with his sons and supporters, Bundy engaged in an armed confrontation with law enforcement over a dispute with the federal government dating back to 1993. Bundy refused to pay cattle-grazing fees required to use publicly-owned land near his ranch.

Bundy does not believe the federal government has any constitutional authority to own large tracts of land, or that federal courts have supremacy over Nevada courts. Federal judges have repeatedly ruled that these views have no legal standing.

Yet since the standoff, a federal case against Bundy and his sons was dropped by a federal judge, who ruled that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence. She chastised prosecutors, the USA TODAY Network reported, saying they acted recklessly and engaged in a "deliberate attempt to mislead and distort the truth."

'Gardening with minimal water'

Friday morning, Baker Creek's media relations staffer Kathy McFarland said those issues aren't why the seed company invited Bundy to its annual spring festival.

"I know the political stuff kind of gets in the way, but we’re all about gardening and particularly growing rare seeds," McFarland said in a phone call Friday morning.

The focus of Bundy's 1:30 p.m. talk on May 5 is to be dry farming methods. Bundy, McFarland said, has significant experience in growing ancient crookneck watermelons in desert conditions, along with cattle ranching. She said she does not expect Bundy's "sovereign citizen" politics to come up unless someone asks about them during a Q-and-A session.

Started by company founder Jere Gettle about 19 years ago as a catalog-driven business, Baker Creek's spring festival attracts about 10,000 garden and farming enthusiasts from 40 states, most of whom come from Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee, McFarland said.

The company's 2019 spring lineup includes 20 speakers who are expected to share knowledge about topics such as seed libraries, Thomas Jefferson's garden and heirloom foods from Africa.

Presenting a diversity of topics and speakers is one of Baker Creek's goals when it prepares for festivals, McFarland said. (The company also sponsors the National Heirloom Exposition each September in Santa Rosa, California.)

McFarland noted she had just spoken to Bundy before a Friday interview with the News-Leader, "because he called with some questions."

"We discussed the dry farming methods," McFarland said, not Bundy's controversial political statements.

In 2014, Bundy generated a number of headlines after he held a news conference in which he told reporters he is not a racist, but questioned whether African Americans were better off as enslaved people than they are today.

"They seem to be slaves to the welfare system," he said, according to a report by the Arizona Republic.

Thursday and Friday, many people took to Facebook to strongly criticize Baker Creek for extending an invitation to Bundy.

"Really Jere? Really?" wrote one local man Friday morning.

"I was looking forward to planting my seedlings this weekend, started from your seeds," wrote a woman. "This will be my last season supporting you. We are so disappointed in your alignment with Cliven Bundy."

McFarland also said the company has heard positive comments about Bundy's visit and that this is not the company's "first time at the rodeo" in terms of receiving political objections. Baker Creek has previously been criticized by supporters of genetically modified plants who cite science to explain their views, she said.

"We’re not aligned with Cliven Bundy's politics," McFarland insisted. "That’s not the issue. We’re interested in his gardening techniques because they have a lot of merit."

Cliven Bundy's history of defiance:

Bundy insists US can't own land, no matter who's president

Cliven Bundy is free, but standoff case isn't over: What you need to know