He only has 2 acres, it sounds like he lives in an urban area.

He was violating urban zoning codes.

Rural areas have no zoning.

 

I did check out the county where he would be. It is a mostly urban area, around Decatur GA.

Regardless I find it absurd. To me it wouldn't matter if it were a 1/4 acre lot in downtown Atlanta, humans should have a right to grow food if that is their wish. Just my opinion.

 

Sounds like somebody in the government didnt get there payoff.

 

The same people complaining, will be the first ones to starve.. We can hope.

 

Cities have lots of restrictions.

We have lived in cities where you could not raise chickens even.

Urban and rural do not mix.

If you want rural, then go rural.

If you want urban then go urban.

 

See they already have most people (including those on this board) numb to their assaults on personal rights and freedoms.

Two acres in an urban area is huge if that's what he has.

You know what? In metro arreas in the southwest like Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc, you wake up in the morning to the sound of a thousand roosters. You see we must be culturally sensitive to the Mexican "immigrants" and their need to have livestock on their urban lots.

Check out how the Feds are using the recent egg recall to justify regulating private food production right out of existence:

http://familysurvivalcenter.blogspot.com/2010/09/proposed-legislation-s510-to-restrict.html

That egg recall was blown out of proportion more than the recent East Coast "hurricane". They never let a crisis go unexploited.

 

I was on another forum more car based and brought things like this up
Most came back with You need to accept change and its life deal with it and so on
I was really ****ing amazed by the lack of anger of the thing that happen so i asked ages 80% of the guys saying to change with the times were under 22 the ones25-up were all ****ed as i was

If i want to grow some food in my back yard leave me the hell alone go catch killers drug dealers thieves and such

 

Sadly, I am not shocked.



A story like this should shock me.

 

Holy crap...if that is what Atlanta Metro has come to, I'm glad I moved 5 years ago. I hate the weather here, the land sucks for planting unless you have raised beds here, but I sure feel a lot safer, and I don't have to worry about some dumbs*** government employees telling me what I can and can't grow.

Although, it's kind of funny...I have chickens and turkeys, but across the street is a development with an HOA, that won't let them have livestock of any type.

 

Sounds like a rediculous law and I'd bet an equally rediculous reasoning behind it.

Tell me what is detrimental to a city, about having 2 acres of figs, cabbages and brocolli.
And even then, it's 2 darn acres, not 50. I believe my yard's bigger than two acres.

I'm sure glad that the mayor and city board have their priorities straight. Concerned more about the proper zoning of somebody's little row of corn instead of what crime, utility, revenue and trash problems the town has.

But that patch of brocolii, where the man supposedly even actually has some workers tending it? Nah I'm sure that's a real eyesore. His neighbors seem so very upset.

 

He should move to a right-to-farm state. As much as I wail and bemoan the blueness of Connecticut, I can tell the powers that be to go catch murderers and rapists and get the **** off my land.

 

I live not to far from him in a different county, Dekalb county has a huge deficit.(from lack of proper managment and corruption) And more than likely asummed he would pay ,not hire a lawyer. The fact that you can be fined for growing food bearing plants perplexes me ,what about ornamental plants can you have to many of them also.

 

Google "edible landscaping"...it's the wave of the future!

 

Amerika, where you are free to do as "they" say.

 

I see both sides on this. He should have rezoned before he started. If you operate in violation of a law, that's what happens. I think it's bad that zoning has any control over whether you grow food crops on your land. But the law is the law. Disobey it, pay the price. Especially since he had an alternative that would have kept him out of trouble.

 

I guess all laws are right huh? The Supreme court was right to intern people because of their nationality, or the 4th amendment doesn't exist when some agency says it doesn't exist.

Calcium will help keep your bones strong, especially that spine.

 

Imo the vast majority of Americans have absolutely no clue what Liberty is, much less the ability to recognize when it is taken away. Liberty has been delegated to a curse word in the public school system now. I understand zoning laws and the need for them, ie. you wouldn't want this guy raising 10,000 chickens on those two acres living near people. However, people should be able to grow their own food and sell the extra if they want. Only in modern America can someone be fined for producing too much of his own food and pays large scale farmers to destory their excess crops or let land go idle.

Growing brocolli certainly doesn't infringe on neighbors rights--I mean when is the last time you heard brocolli plants barking all night long? Instead of raiding drug houses I say let's use swat teams to start invading gardens. We can hold large scale burning of vegetables to let everyone know that you shouldn't grow more than you eat. Better yet, let's build prisons for the criminal growing of brocolli (and don't forget about evil tomato plant growers--the scurge of society). Maybe the gov't should start issuing licenses if you want to grow vegetables. More employment opportunities.

Btw, I would much rather drive by a yard that is growing a garden than the run down trash filled yards I often see. This is almost as insane as fining people for collecting rain water.

 

Precisely!!! The garden does not endanger anyone else's Life, Liberty, or Property.

 

Standard local government stuff here in GA. You pass a bad stupid law, you change the law back to something reasonable, but you still try to fine a citizen for violating the stupid law you passed that has since been repealed.

 

Was there a time when local government actually worked WITH the citizenry? I think so.

Maybe back when the local government consisted OF local farmers and work-a-day people. Now... not so much. I could not in good conscience screw a neighbor like that.
Now, the emphasis seems to be on revenue. doesn't it. Look for every dollar. Feed the beast.. THAT is more important than serving the community.
$5,000 .... sell your soul and sell out your broccoli growing neighbor for 5 grand.
What goes around, really does come around.
Shame on them.


Broccoli Police..

 

The govt still works with the citizenry, and most city dwellers do not was barnyard smells waifting over into they back patio, hence laws againt people starting farms in urban and suburban tract homes. Lots of open space in this country, as the beekeeper said, you want to live rural live rural, you want to live city live in the city.

 

Mixed feelings about this one... zoning laws are there for a reason. Somebody in a residential area shouldn't have to deal with a commercial business just popping up next door out of nowhere. There are traffic considerations too. etc., etc., etc.

However, usually these zoning laws aren't an issue unless somebody complains. If nobody was complaining, and traffic wasn't an issue, which was obviously the case since they changed the zoning, then it's really none of their business. Suing retroactively in this case is just retarded.

 

Don't think it's going to stop with urban or local zoning regulations. We can't sell milk to our neighbor, we can't put window tint on our own vehicles, and if we don't pay the government to live on our own land in the form of taxes they will take it from us.

They don't want us to grow our own food because it takes away our dependence on the government, some day you will need a license to grow anything anywhere. If you don't believe that, imagine telling George Washington that in places it would some day be illegal to fly the American Flag on your own property.

 

Unusual precedent by FDA to shut down small, family-owned artisan cheese making biz

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013257593_cheese26m.html

In an unusual action, the Food and Drug Administration forced one of Washington's most well-known artisan cheesemakers to shut down, saying the product could be contaminated with bacteria that can cause serious illness.

The FDA took the action Friday, after asking Estrella Family Creamery to initiate a recall. Estrella declined.

Foodies, who clearly adore the company's cheeses, have been all abuzz decrying the move.

The award-winning raw-milk cheeses, made in Montesano, Grays Harbor County, are sold at farmers markets, high-end restaurants and retail stores in several states.

No illnesses have been linked with the cheeses, the state Department of Health said.

--------------------------

They are going to take out one of these private food production businesses at a time until they are history.

 

i think the constitution said it best right to LIFE LIBERTY AND PROPRETY
proprety means i possess somthing and can use it to my own will if i want to trash my
computer with a sledge hammer then i have the right to do it as long as i dont stomp on sombodyesle rights ( yes rigths ) your freedom ends where mine begins

these days statutes (witch arnt laws btw) stomp on everybodys liberty .
they should outlaw statutes !
in canada to the face of the law not knowing the diffrence between a statutes and a law is criminal negligence and fraud . so better open a book and find the diffrence ...

 

This shows the zoning laws for what they are, a way to bilk dollars out of already over taxed citizens. This guy isn't doing anything wrong at all. He is producing and the locals want a piece of the action, so they sue for $5000 for doing nothing.

Blatant graft, on the part of local gov., that should be prosecuted. No service to the community here.

 

I wonder what the county thinks an expectable amount of plants would be

 

Even more ludicrous, according to this article his property was zoned in a way that WOULD have allowed him to keep livestock like pigs but not specifically vegetable gardening, which was why he had to change his zoning from R-85 to R-200. How stupid is THAT?

I understand the need for zoning laws in a city (one of the reasons I don't live in a city any more) but if none of his neighbors were complaining who are they "protecting"?