US farmer fined $5K for growing too many vegetables

Originally posted by earthdude
The article failed to mention what the zoning laws were. It looks like there was a law and he broke it. Laws are made by the people that live there, not some Orwellian figure. Just because you think you can do something in your yard does not make it legal.

Exactly, good point.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by PsykoOps

 

Things are different all over. One of my best friends lives in an upscale subdivision and cannot alter his yards landscaping without consulting his community association.

Did he ever consider running for office on his association board and changing things, or is one who just bitches and does nothing else?

I'm all for people's rights and I hate Monsanto for their greedy activities, as well as the next guy. However, this story which comes from an Austrailian source, just doesn't ring true to me. Austrailians like to point out American shortcommings on freedoms but allowed themselves to be disarmed, with little protest, by their own government.

First off, there seems to be a dispute as to wheather this 2 acres of land is zoned residential or agricultural. People make laws locally in the US through their elected officials at the local level to govern the use of land in these areas to allow a neighbor some protection form someone opening up a factory next to thrm, for example.

Second, if those laws have become too restrictive, they can be changed. The local officials can be voted out and a new more enlightened set of laws can be instituted by the newly elected officials. It is all in the hands of the local citizens, as it should be.

Aussies don't seem to always understand how our system works. Sure we are facing a crisis in dealing with a national BigGov out of control, but at least we still have our locally controled independant governments, and our guns as the final solution to the out of control BigGov thugs.

reply to post by romanmel


The story is on an Aussie server, but it is from WSB, channel 2 here in Atlanta. It's a local story and what is posted by the OP is identical to what was on the local news page.

The house in question is a large and rather awkward lot located within a fairly large subdivision.

Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by romanmel

 

The story is on an Aussie server, but it is from WSB, channel 2 here in Atlanta. It's a local story and what is posted by the OP is identical to what was on the local news page.

The house in question is a large and rather awkward lot located within a fairly large subdivision.

Thanks for the clarification. the Aussie thing is just an observation that I see a lot of negative reports from them about how repressive a BigGov we have here in the USA, while not acknowledging their own shortcommings.

Still, if the local government is too repressive in regulation, change it. I think though that I personally would not like a "farmer type" in my subdivision.

In Georgia??
No, really... Unbelievable.

Also,
The mental disconnect that could let people find growing food offensive enough to make it against zoning laws boggles me.
It's not beautiful growing but it's wonderful wrapped in plastic at the store....
Folks that pass those sorts of zoning ordinances are probably the type that buys one potato already wrapped in plastic for microwaving. Just to much effort to wrap it themselves, or maybe they don't want to get that icky Nature on their hands. *sigh*
Also, the article states he has been doing this for 15 years. It makes one wonder what really happened between him and one of his neighbors...
Someone got P.O.ed, petty and called the 'zoning police' on him after 15 years...
I just LOVE it when people use the law to escalate neighborhood squabbles.