Florida Lifts Ban on Front-Yard Vegetable Farming!
Florida has finally passed a bill that trumps all the bans on front yard gardens. Inspired by a couple in Miami Shores who were forced to tear out their “unsightly” 17 year old vegetable garden, change has finally happened within Florida towards a little more freedom.
Most people are extremely supportive of the initiative as the story about this couple went viral originally, making Florida look like one of the worst states to be in the country. Why live in tropical climates if you’re not allowed to use your yard to grow food?
The new bill prohibits “local governments from regulating vegetable gardens on residential properties.” Any regulations that were standing before are now considered “void and unenforceable” resulting in a small win as far as individual property rights are concerned.
Moving beyond the fact that people should be able to do whatever they want with their properties, it’s a bit silly to decentivize people from growing their own food when you consider the existence of food deserts. With the climate of Florida, there’s no reason people shouldn’t be growing their own food if they want to.
More from the Homestead Guru: UN Report Says Small-Scale Organic Farming Only Way To Feed The World (Opens in a new browser tab)Oddly enough the road to this wasn’t very straight at least not for the couple from Miami Shores. They raised a suit against the state, went to Supreme Court and even lost their case. It wasn’t until later when some senators caught wind of the case and became inspired to make a change.
Florida isn’t the only place with backward front yard garden regulations, apparently this is a country wide problem. If you’re in the United States and dream of uprooting your front yard for vegetables, you might want to check the laws and make sure the cops aren’t just going to show up and uproot things. Some other towns with bad front lawn regulations are: Tulsi(Oklahoma), Oak Park (Michigan) and Newton (Massachusetts).
More from the Homestead Guru: Permaculture Puts Organic Gardening on Autopilot(Opens in a new browser tab)Here’s to hoping they get inspired to change their policies!
More information about this change in policy:
Florida Lifts Bans on Frontyard Veggie GardensIt's Illegal to Grow Food in Your Front Yard in Florida
Florida Lifts Bans on Front Yard Gardens
This article was written by @Highlyfunctional of www.highlyfunctionalgrowth.com and can be found at: https://thehomestead.guru/florida-lifts-ban/
Way to go Florida and the brave individuals that saccrificed so much to bring attention to this issue. I tried to fight the system in Des Moines, Iowa with my own urban farm and I lost big.
We were given notices, warnings, and then fine after fine. I fought them in court multiple times and even though I was able to show many ways their laws were misguided and detrimental. After a year of very little progress they decided make an example out of my families urban farm. We had already gave up battling the city and were in the process of moving to 80 acres in southern Iowa. 2 days into our move they labeled our farm abandoned and came in with a skid loader. They destroyed our front yard garden and everything that was in it. They drove the skidloader over every fruit tree it could handle in our backyard orchard. They even threw away over 100 potted plants and trees that were up on our 2nd story deck. It brings me great anger and sorrow even telling the story. Progress isn't easy in our society of excessive laws. Des Moines has laws against compost piles, edible weeds, standing water, and even insects. Basically in Des Moines nature is banned, which is the most ridiculous concept I've ever heard. Keep up the good fight everyone and back up those who the government goes after. Saving the world is worth it!!!