Free Republic

150 years ago growing a garden could be a matter of life and death. No one would have ever possibly suggested that growing vegetables was not a constitutionally protected right. But, today the thought of a family growing some non-gmo vegetables is just too much of a risk to public safety. Apparently the right to feed yourself and your family is indeed not a fundamental one, as a Florida attorney previously declared. A longstanding battle between 17-year homeowners at the Village of Miami Shores, Tom Carroll and Hermine Ricketts, appears to have reached its sad conclusion. In 2014, the couple...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Few things in life are as benign as a home vegetable garden. But for the residents of Miami Shores, Fla., growing veggies can land you a fine — the type you eventually can’t afford. That’s what happened to Hermine Ricketts and her husband, Tom Carroll. For the past 17 years they’ve grown a garden in the front yard of their modest South Florida home. The backyard, they say, doesn’t get enough sunlight. But in May, the city put the couple’s garden, and any others like it, in their legal crosshairs. A new zoning ordinance designed to “protect...

A Miami Shores couple is taking the city to court over veggies. For 17 years they grew vegetables in their front yard. But last May, Miami Shores’ Code Enforcement officers inspected Hermine Ricketts and husband Tom Carroll’s property and informed them that they were breaking the law by having a vegetable garden in front of their home. … Miami Shores passed an ordinance that went into effect last May which banned front yard vegetable gardens. The city threatened Ricketts and Carroll with fines of $50 a day, or about $1,500 per month, if they did not uproot the garden. Unable...