Supporting and nurturing the growth of a more resilient Toronto
Something that bears watching, and possibly protesting.
A friend on Facebook passed this story on, and I thought Transition folks would find it of interest. Personally, I find it alarming! A guy in Texas (I believe) is being threatened with large fines of up to $5000 for growing too many vegetables in his garden. He was cited originally by his county for growing too many vegetables for his zone, so he applied to have his property re-zoned. His re-zoning application has been accepted, but the charges against him have still not been dropped. Indeed, the county is going ahead and prosecuting the case in spite of the re-zoning. You can check out the article on the case that she sent around at http://theintelhub.com/2010/09/14/georgia-man-fined-5000-for-growin... for more info. There's a link to a news-clip in the article, and I highly recommend watching it. In many ways, it's more informative than the article itself.
What concerns me about this case is that it has the potential to set a very dangerous president, especially for people trying to practice urban agriculture and food gardening (though the man in question was in a rural setting). People absolutely need the right to grow food on their own property and to share and/or sell it locally if local sustainability is to be achieved. So I find the notion that governments, be they municipal, regional or federal, can simply walk in and shut down some one's home garden very alarming. Now granted, they haven't done it yet. But I would be alarmed if they did and got away with it.
What concerns me about this case is that it has the potential to set a very dangerous president, especially for people trying to practice urban agriculture and food gardening (though the man in question was in a rural setting). People absolutely need the right to grow food on their own property and to share and/or sell it locally if local sustainability is to be achieved. So I find the notion that governments, be they municipal, regional or federal, can simply walk in and shut down some one's home garden very alarming. Now granted, they haven't done it yet. But I would be alarmed if they did and got away with it.
Tags: food, gardening, laws, sustainability
Views: 6
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Adrian Rhodes on -
This goes to something I noticed: in the US, there is a great swing toward more and more social control. This seems unfortunate, but surely people could recognize that this person is doing a good thing for themselves and obviously, their neighbourhood. There will always be pushback on what people are trying to do and it won't always be rational, unfortunately.
I have a blog where I recently posted on 'victory' gardens in my early life...
let's not get discouraged or upset...
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