In case you missed it a couple in
Drummondville, Quebec have been told if
they do not remove or substantially reduce their front yard vegetable
garden they will face fines of up to $300 a day.
Drummondville town code states: that a
vegetable garden can take up 30 percent of a front yard at most. They
have given Landry and Beauchamp two weeks to comply. (After an
outpouring of support for their refusal to remove it, it is now
reported that this deadline may be extended.)
What is wrong with this picture, this
is not an overgrown patch of weeds but a very productive and well
cared for vegetable garden. Should we as a society not be encouraging
such initiatives, the days of manicured lawns that look nice but
produce nothing but more co2 from the lawnmower than they absorb
should be phased out in favor of productive use of the ever
decreasing green spaces in our cities. They are not the first folk to
run afoul of antiquated or less than flexible city bylaws, those for
whom wild flowers are preferable to grass have also run in to the
same kind of nonsense. Neither are they the first ones to be
personalized for growing vegetables, last
summer a woman in Michigan faced the same sort of thing but the city
was forced to back down after a public outcry.
Its time for city officials and other
urban residents who have their head in the sand that the food on
their plates does not magically appear in the grocery store and that
food shortages are becoming an increasing reality for many. Perhaps
this years drought conditions across North America and the ensuing
increase in prices will help bring the point home.
Want to support this couple, why not
start a veggi garden in your own urban front yard, just imagine a
street of houses fronted by gardens with tomatoes, sweet corn, peas,
beans, carrots, beets and so on.... what a beautiful sight that would
be.....
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