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Posted on 09/15/2010 9:09:24 AM PDT by bamahead
CLARKSTON, GA (CNN) - A Georgia man is headed to court over how many vegetables he can grow on his land. Code enforcement says until recently, the farmer had too many vegetable plants for his property in Clarkston, just outside Atlanta.
Steve Miller's profession is landscaping, but his passion is growing organic vegetables. That passion landed the Clarkston man in court. Before he rezoned the land two months ago, DeKalb County Code Enforcement cited him for illegal growing crops and using unpermitted workers.
"I never realized this could get me in trouble," Miller said. "In fact, it was a shock when I was told I couldn't have this many vegetables."
Miller says he sells some of the food at area farmers markets and gives some away to friends. When he applied for rezoning, his attorney says the county put the charges on hold but are now seeking $5,000 in fines.
"How are they protecting the public, health and welfare of the citizens of DeKalb County by prosecuting this man on previous offenses that are now no longer offenses," said attorney Doug Dillard.
Alice Rolls, executive director of Georgia Organics, predicts more cases like this as vegetable gardens make a comeback.
"As agriculture comes back into urban areas we are dealing with old laws on the books," she said.
Miller says he'll likely spend more than $27,000 on the zoning fight, admitting that's a lot of money to grow greens.
"I'm amazed they are still coming after me," he said.
A spokesperson for DeKalb County says officials can't discuss the matter because it is in court.
(Excerpt) Read more at walb.com ...
This is clearly like increases in the number of traffic tickets a money grab during a time of revenue shortfalls for some government. Seriously, one might think if the land zoning was changed to allow this, the case is moot.
It’s MY land — I’ll grow what I WANT to. As long as I’m NOT growing an ILLEGAL plant, then stay OFF my property.
Thought you might like to read of this insanity.
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The Plant Police!
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Wickard v. Filburn 1942
Facts of the Case:
Filburn was a small farmer in Ohio. He was given a wheat acreage allotment of 11.1 acres under a Department of Agriculture directive which authorized the government to set production quotas for wheat. Filburn harvested nearly 12 acres of wheat above his allotment. He claimed that he wanted the wheat for use on his farm, including feed for his poultry and livestock. Fiburn was penalized. He argued that the excess wheat was unrelated to commerce since he grew it for his own use.
Question:
Is the amendment subjecting Filburn to acreage restrictions in violation of the Constitution because Congress has no power to regulate activities local in nature?
Conclusion:
According to Filburn, the act regulated production and consumption, which are local in character. The rule laid down by Justice Jackson is that even if an activity is local and not regarded as commerce, “it may still, whatever its nature, be reached by Congress if it exerts a substantial economic effect on interstate commerce, and this irrespective of whether such effect is what might at some earlier time have been defined as ‘direct’ or ‘indirect.’”
I don’t believe in suing governments because it’s the taxpayers who pay... but I do believe in firing government officials. Clearly there are some here who are begging to be fired.
But Steve, the government has no power over an honest man, so the government will make sure you are a "criminal".
>It’s MY land — I’ll grow what I WANT to. As long as I’m NOT growing an ILLEGAL plant, then stay OFF my property.
Don’t worry, the government can then solve the issue by making all plants illegal... especially the edible ones. {We can’t have people becoming self-sufficient, you know... otherwise they may get ‘ideas’ that the benevolent/wise/freedom-loving government is too restrictive!}
[/cynic]
I am not surprised.
I saw this happen when I lived in Florida. The ‘City’ I used to reside in had no problems with you having a vegetable garden when I first moved in 1991, then slowly it became an Eyesore and then you could only grow if you had a ‘privacy’ fence which of course you had to get a permit for.
I expect this anti-vegetable garden stuff to keep happening for many reasons but I think the ‘hidden’ biggie is that the person doing the growing is that much less reliant on Agri-business for their food supply.
BTTT
unfortunately, sometimes the only way to get rid of the corrupt official is to sue.
The politicians get paid off by the factory farmers and the big truckers. So, from time to time they act to discourage small-scale local farming.
In theory, they support organic foods and local produce, because that’s obviously the green thing to do. But in fact, this stuff is competing with the vegetables trucked in to the supermarket from California or Mexico.
Upstate New York, especially the Albany area, does this sort of thing all the time. Make things more expensive for the small dairy farmers, for instance, so as to benefit the big guys.
Yeah I read about this on another thread.
Dead tyrants would make excellent compost.
You’re not supposed to put fat or oil onto compost.
It only draws more vermin.
Joseph Stalin is amused.
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