Remember my interview with Orlando’s “illegal” front-yard gardeners?

AIMGiftbearer commented below this video yesterday:

“All such ordinances should be done away with. “Appearance” should never trump function, and “property value is not something that should be legislated. People should be free to grow what they want on their own property. If somebody else doesn’t like a neighbor’s yard then they just shouldn’t look at it. It’s none of their business! If they don’t like it then tough tomatoes! When push comes to shove food comes first and everyone has the right to feed themselves and their family. Food prices keep going up and salaries aren’t, so one’s gotta to do what one’s gotta do. I say if someone can grow much or all of their own food then more power to them! And really if you look deeper this is not coming from “the government” per se although they are the ones enforcing this BS law, but what’s really behind it is special interests that represent mega food production; big corporations that want to be food monopolies. They are the same corporations that have put many small mom and pop local farmers out of business. Such predatory companies want everyone to get their food only from THEIR multi-billion dollar businesses. The government’s part in this is that they are too lenient in not limiting corporate over-reach and in so doing they fail to protect the “little guy” from abusive big business practices and their self-serving agendas. It all comes down to profit over individual rights, and individuals just trying to feed themselves and their families are getting stepped on here. Aesthetics is often the stated reason for such ordinances, but in reality it’s just an excuse to place the rights of the food monopolies over that of the citizen. This cover reason does not hold water. It’s utterly transparent and total BS! There are so many better ways tax money could be spent instead of paying ridiculous “yard police” to go and micromanage people’s front yards and tying up the court system with frivolous trumped up charges against citizens who are just living their lives in “pursuit of happiness. This form of harrassment really is a violation of Constitutional property rights and it should be the position of County, State, and Federal Government to take a universal hands-off approach when certain busybodies complain about the “look” of a sustainable garden. Maybe instead of encouraging this sort of nitpicky, catty behavior, those agencies who are receiving such calls should just tell the griping person to be more tolerant and that they can only control land that they own; not everyone else’s. If one person here and there is so stressed out by what someone else chooses to plant then the problem really rests with that person who is “bothered” by it, not the planter. Personal preferences should not be a mandate for another to pull up and dismantle their garden crops, wasting good, healthy food. Individuals growing their own food IN NO WAY infringe upon Monsanto or any of the big box chain grocery grocery stores’ rights, nor the rights of other citizens living in the vicinity. They are still free to do what they want with the land they own. There are however legitimate laws on the books against monopolies! I hope that this couple’s attorney will make use of those statutes in court.”

I tend to agree. There does seem to be a push towards centralization of control in the hands of corporations and bureaucrats.

Planting a front-yard garden in some areas is now a revolutionary act.

Viva la revolution!