GLOBAL POLITICAL AWAKENING: home gardens

Showing posts with label home gardens. Show all posts

Friday, November 9, 2012

FL Man Refuses City Order To Destroy His Own Garden

Heather Callaghan

"A lot of us have gardens, but is there such thing as just...too much of a good thing?"

The co-anchor responds, "The City of Orlando says when it comes to one house, the answer is Yes..."

Jason Helvingston was ordered to destroy his 25 x 25 micro-irrigated front yard veggie garden on his own property by November 7th but it's still there - "and that's the problem" chimes another news anchor standing among the fruits of his labor, discussing the city's problem (not the residents') with the Orlando, Florida man. WKMG Local 6

"You'll take my house before you take my vegetable garden," Jason said. "There's nothing wrong here, there's nothing poisonous here. This is a sustainable plot of land."

As always, it's only select bureaucrats who are filing the complaint for a code violation that wants yards with a "finished appearance...clean, and inviting."

But destroying this man's garden is an oddity considering that the City Planning Division's mission statement reads:

To inspire and facilitate the development of a well-planned, diverse, and sustainable community to make Orlando more livable for its citizens, businesses and visitors.

Quebec Couple Wins Right To Grow Vegetables On Front Lawn

Press For Truth

The city of Drummondville Quebec has ruled in favor of a couples right to grow their own vegetables on their front lawn! This case could set a precedent and generate a ripple effect that would see families all across the nation following in their footsteps and growing their own organic non GMO fresh produce.

Meanwhile Monsanto recently dished out $4.2 million to try to stop an initiative in California which seeks to block the labeling of GMO foods.

http://boingboing.net/2012/08/23/front-yard-gardener-wins-over.html

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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Woman Sues City of Tulsa For Cutting Down Her Edible Garden

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Charges NOT Dropped For Growing Garden

Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

While it only appears that the City of Oak Park, MI dropped charges toward Julie Bass for planting a vegetable garden in her front yard, she wants to clarify that charges have not been dropped. She may not be spending 93 days in the slammer for growing veggies, but she faces similar punishment - for her dogs! But the garden fiasco is not over, more on that below.

Did the canines have run-ins with the police and attack pedestrians? No, they were simply unlicensed at the time she was ticketed for the garden. So the Bass family immediately got licenses after being cited for them, showed proof to the prosecutor and then it seemed that the issue was cleared. That is, until the case was recently reinstated. Even though her pets are current and licensed, she faces two misdemeanors and possibly over 93 days in jail. Political posturing at its finest.

Be sure to watch the news clip below. Their attorney is going to subpoena all other city citations regarding these ordinances to find out just how selectively enforced they really are.

Listen to Oak Park Prosecutor Eugene Lumberg digress and ask the news anchor if she would like to have her neighbors plant corn stalks next door (or have a chicken coop!). Kudos to the interviewer for setting him straight and directing the conversation back to the point.

Fox 2 News Headlines

Another reason the garden charges are not necessarily dropped is because they were strangely “[not dropped but] dismissed by some judge we have never heard of or seen. we hope this person is a real judge, and had the real authority to dismiss our case, but we are going to double-check on that today.”

The Indignity of Industrial Tomatoes

Tasteless, indestructible and picked by literal slaves, our favorite fruit has become a national shame

Heirloom Tomatoes - Wiki Image

Barry Estabrook
Gilt Taste

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook/Andrews McMeel Publishing

My obituary's headline would have read "Food Writer Killed by Flying Tomato."

On a visit to my parents in Naples, Florida, I was driving I-75 when I came up behind one of those gravel trucks that seem to be everywhere in southwest Florida's rush to convert pine woods and cypress stands into gated communities and shopping malls. As I drew closer, I saw that the tractor trailer was heavy with what seemed to be green apples. When I pulled out to pass, three of them sailed off the truck, narrowly missing my windshield. Every time it hit the slightest bump, more of those orbs would tumble off. At the first stoplight, I got a closer look. The shoulder of the road was littered with green tomatoes so plasticine and so identical they could have been stamped out by a machine. Most looked smooth and unblemished. A few had cracks in their skins. Not one was smashed. A 10-foot drop followed by a 60-mile-per- hour impact with pavement is no big deal to a modern, agribusiness tomato.

If you have ever eaten a fresh tomato from a grocery store or restaurant, chances are good that you have eaten a tomato much like the ones aboard that truck. Florida alone accounts for one-third of the fresh tomatoes raised in the United States, and from October to June, virtually all the fresh-market, field-grown tomatoes in the country come from the Sunshine State, which ships more than one billion pounds every year. It takes a tough tomato to stand up to the indignity of such industrial scale farming, so most Florida tomatoes are bred for hardness, picked when still firm and green (the merest trace of pink is taboo), and artificially gassed with ethylene in warehouses until they acquire the rosy red skin tones of a ripe tomato.

New Jersey town cites backyard organic farmer for growing vegetables, demands crops be left unattended to die

Giving away garden vegetables cited as a local crime

Ethan A. Huff
Natural News

Hostility towards individuals who grow food in their suburban or semi-rural backyards appears to be on the rise, this time in the New Jersey township of Chatham. Officials there have twice cited Mike Bucuk, a 24-year-old organic farmer, for the crime of growing vegetables in his backyard and giving the surplus away to his neighbors for free. The town has even ordered Mike to stop attending to his three-acre plot of crops, thanks to a concerted legal effort spawned by a disgruntled neighbor.

It all apparently started when the Bucuk's neighbor Richard Erich Hamlin lodged a complaint with the town, alleging that Mike was operating a commercial farm in his backyard in violation of local zoning ordinances. Even though Mike's "commercial farm" is really nothing more than a backyard organicgarden with a small, moveable greenhouse, the town ultimately ordered that Mike stop cultivating hiscrops until the issue is resolved one way or the other.

Huge Wind-Powered Aquaponic Dome Greenhouse Planned for Vermont Park

Sami Grover
Treehugger

Will Allen's incredible Growing Power project has already gotten many people hooked on the idea of urban aquaponics. And there are plenty of DIY aquaponics enthusiasts tinkering with fish farming and produce growing in their backyards. An innovative non-profit project has just finished up a pilot project growing nearly 3000lb of fruit and vegetables on 1/10th of an acre, and is using that feat as leverage to create a massive, solar heated aquaponic greenhouse in the heart of a Vermont park. This really is a "Garden of the Future".

From Backyard Greenhouses to Huge Aquaponics Project
Writing over at the Utopianist, Anna Loza brings us news of The Root Center's Garden of the Future aquaponics project planned for The National Gardening Association's Vermont Garden Park. Having completed a pilot phase of their project, in which the group established eight backyard sites located in seven different cities and grew 2600lbs of fruit and vegetables on a total of 1/10th of an acre, the Root Center is moving into phase II of its Garden of the Future plan:

The plan is to build a passive solar heated domed greenhouse, about 45 feet in diameter, which will house the team's working spaces while sustaining a year-round fish pond and creating a thriving natural habitat. And this is where things get interesting. Water containing fish waste will be cycled up to planters stacked within the dome which will use the waste as food; the water comes back clean to the fish pond, where bacteria self-regulate pH. This self-sustaining system will produce fruit, vegetables, flowers and fish on a year-round basis -- and it will be the continent's first organic fish farm to boot. The only inputs into the entire system are fish food and seedlings -- the aquaponic garden essentially transforms that fish food into fresh produce.

Read Full Article

RELATED ARTICLES:
Two Farming Innovations with Great Promise
5 Easy Ways to Prepare for Food Inflation
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Garden As If Your Life Depended On It, Because It Does

There are at least five reasons why more of us should take up the spade, make some compost, and start gardening with a vengeance.

Garden hen/Wikimedia Commons image

Ellen LaConte
AlterNet

Spring has sprung -- at least south of the northern tier of states where snow still has a ban on it -- and the grass has 'riz. And so has the price of most foods, which is particularly devastating just now when so many Americans are unemployed, underemployed, retired or retiring, on declining or fixed incomes and are having to choose between paying their mortgages, credit card bills, car payments, and medical and utility bills and eating enough and healthily. Many are eating more fast food, prepared foods, junk food -- all of which are also becoming more expensive -- or less food.

In some American towns, and not just impoverished backwaters, as many as 30 percent of residents can't afford to feed themselves and their families sufficiently, let alone nutritiously. Here in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina where I live it's 25 percent. Across the country one out of six of the elderly suffers from malnutrition and hunger. And the number of children served one or two of their heartiest, healthiest meals by their schools grows annually as the number of them living at poverty levels tops 20 percent. Thirty-seven million Americans rely on food banks that now routinely sport half-empty shelves and report near-empty bank accounts. And this is a prosperous nation!

Ten Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient and Ten Ways to Get There

Michael Edwards and Jeffrey Green

Activist Post

We are now three to five generations removed from the rural backbone that strengthened America. The world at large has undergone a similar transformation as the promise of easier work has created a migration to big cities. These mega-cities could be seen as an experiment gone awry, as general well-being has declined, with suicide rates increasing across the world. Crowded conditions and economic strife have led to rampant crime, pollution, corporate malfeasance, and a dog-eat-dog type of competition that can be described as a temporary insanity.

The economic crisis we are living through has been the final straw for many people, as promises of a better, easier, and more creative life seem to have been sold to us by carnival-style tricksters who are laughing all the way to (their) bank.

Here are the top reasons for becoming self-sufficient; these are based on fundamental, systemic concerns for why undertaking this life change will not be a fly-by-night fad, but rather a long-lasting means for personal independence.

10 Reasons to Become Self-Sufficient

Freedom from market manipulation - The traditional market-driven investment vehicles are more and more obviously controlled by traders and banking institutions. The debacle of the private Federal Reserve Bank is just the icing on the cake to a previous decade full of Ponzi-type schemes. Now, the institutionalized looting of retirement money is being planned.
Hedging against inflation - Have you noticed the price of goods lately? Even Wal-Mart issilently raising its prices. People might have a choice whether or not to buy stocks or gold, but people have to eat -- the current increases in basic goods portend hyperinflation, and will not ease anytime soon. Food shortages could make the problem exponentially worse.
1. 3. Increasing health and wellness - It has now been revealed that some "organic" items have been falsely labeled. In addition, a host of "GMO-free" brands have been exposed as deceptive. GMO food lacks the nutritional value of what can be grown in the average backyard. GMO mega-corporation, Monsanto, has a sordid history and has continuously trampled on our trust. It is time that we do the work ourselves.
2. Building community strength - We constantly hear people say, "I don't even see my neighbors, let alone know anything about them." Of course not: 80-hour workweeks and grabbing meals-to-go doesn't exactly promote community interaction. With such little time to interact with our immediate community, it is no wonder why many people report feeling disconnected. In these trying times, it is a local community that can offer the best support.
3. Working for yourself - Working hours are increasing, pay is often decreasing, and corporate executives are taking bigger bonuses than ever. This is leading to a prevailing disgust, as people are being forced to admit that they are living lives of near-indentured servitude. Even for those not working in corporations, working for someone else is rarely as satisfying as creating and working for something where every minute you spend is yours alone.
4. Having more free time - We have been taught to believe that life on a farm is arduous sun-up to sun-down drudgery where you collapse at the end of the day. This is not so much the case anymore. Sure, the setup of any farm or self-sufficient endeavor is often time-consuming and laborious, but new technologies and new skills of manufacturing food viapermaculture and aquaponics are offering low-cost start up and minimal maintenance, as these techniques serve to create symbiotic systems that are remarkably self-governing.
5. Generating food and energy security - The planet is running out of food and traditional energy. Climate volatility, market forces, GM foods, and rising costs of harvesting and transporting food are all conspiring to create food shortageseven in the First World. This trend will not reverse. And our oil-soaked way of life is being threatened by mounting evidence that the oil lifeline could be disconnecting rather soon. We should be looking to the air, sun, geothermal, and wave power to wean us from the energy grid.
6. Acquiring an appreciation for life - As one gets closer to life-giving forces, there is a natural appreciation for how things come into being. When you have created your garden, toiled there, selected the best for harvest, and have prepared that food for your family and community, the significance of what you have taken part in can be transformative.
7. Restoring balance - Nearly everything in our society is at a peak, or is drastically out of balance. The systems and governments to which we have looked for balance restoration are missing in action. We must take it upon ourselves to restore our own financial and environmental balance sheet. The best way to do that is to reduce our overconsumption.
8. Becoming a producer, not a consumer - This is the best way to reduce your cost of living and increase your self-sufficiency. In the U.S. over 70% of the economy is based on people buying things. This is a clear sign of imbalance and, by extension, it is not sustainable. Furthermore, we also have seen corporations race to the bottom to find low-cost production on the backs of desperate people. The exploitation of the Third World to clothe, feed, and entertain the First World is something that most people do not want to think about, but it is abominable. Again, new technologies are making it easier than ever to produce your own food, and even your own clothes.
As the cliche goes: Freedom is never free. But it sure beats the alternative.

10 Ways to Get to Self-Sufficiency
The global economic collapse has become an eye-opening experience for many people. The ongoing crisis continues to create more joblessness at a time when the cost of essential items like food and energy continue to rise.

Inflation is only expected to continue due to excessive printing of money to compensate for the bursting economic bubbles, which were arguably created by printing too much money with artificially low interest rates in the first place.

The 2008 price shocks in oil followed by the financial collapse have led many people to begin taking measures to become more self-sufficient. And recently the ominous signs of food shortages, the weakening dollar, and the rising price of oil all point to a similar atmosphere as 2008. Some have taken steps to conserve electricity, reduce spending and consumption, while others are planting kitchen gardens and installing solar panels on their homes. Even living off the grid is becoming a mainstream concept for those seeking independence.

Indeed, becoming more self-sufficient is proving to make common sense whether one anticipates more hardship to come or not. Sure, many of us would love to live completely off the grid without giving up everyday comforts, but this is not practical for most of us. However, there are many steps that can be taken to move towards self-sufficiency which can be relatively painless and quite rewarding.

The following are 10 suggestions that can lead to independent living:
1. Reduce your debt: Especially get your credit card debt under control, since it is entirely corrupt. Call your credit card companies and ask for a work out plan similar to what they received from the taxpayer bailout. If they don't cooperate to your satisfaction, there are some reasons not to pay at all.
2. Reduce your consumption: Evaluate your current budget and determine absolute necessity. Push your comfort level to find areas where you can scale back, and then identify comforts that you’re willing to sacrifice.
3. Reduce energy use: Change light bulbs, have entertainment systems plugged into a splitter that can be shut off completely to reduce phantom charges, etc. Carefully plan shopping trips and other transportation needs.
4. Store energy: Always have back-up propane storage and a large wood pile for a rainy day. Investing in a generator of some kind (even a solar generator) will be money well spent.
5. Invest in food storage: With a falling dollar and rising food prices, why not create a food savings account? Get some good books, dehydrators and vacuum sealers for storage methods. Best storable food items are grains (rice, beans, flour), canned goods, seeds, and some prepackaged items.
6. Produce your own food: Replace your lawn with a garden, fruit trees, and keep chickens. Go on hunting and gathering adventures for nuts, fish, and wild game. Store extra garden seeds!
7. Learn new skills: Surf the Internet, read books, and take courses in practical skills like gardening, cooking with whole foods, composting, carpentry, alternative energy, natural health and wellness etc.
8. Start a side business: Turn your passion or hobby into a small side business to make some supplemental income. Who knows, it may become your path to full financial independence.
9. Install alternative energy: Start with small installations like a solar hot water system, a solar freezer, a solar attic fan, or a wood stove etc. If you have limited funds, tip-toe your way to independence.
10. Suggest solutions for your community: Start or join a local cooperative for food, products, and services. Engage your local community in discussions to take steps for self-sufficiency. Share your story and build support.
These steps will save money as we move closer to the ultimate prize of independence. Each action we take to live more simply frees us from the control systems put in place to make our lives more complicated, more toxic, and less independent.

Related Articles:
Mimicking Nature to Feed the Masses
Dare to Prepare: Collapse of Civilization Now Guaranteed
Using Local Organic Cooperatives to Defeat Globalists
USDA Reports Food Shortages: Wall Street "Caught Off Guard" by Severity
The Government Has a Seed Bank Savings Account, Why Shouldn't You?

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