Gardening a Crime In Canada, Too

“You have 90 days to cease all agricultural activity…” read the letter from the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), on behalf of the District of Lantzville. “Your property is zoned Residential 1, which allows residential use and Home Based Business only.”

With the subsequent public outcry and media storm across Canada, we’ve witnessed how important this issue is to people.

Cities across North America have changed their bylaws to support “urban agriculture” as a legitimate homebased business, including such urban centres as Victoria and Vancouver, BC.

We have 2.5 acres in total, as do several of our neighbours. Three doors down our road are both cows and horses. As you can see from our photographs, the area we live in can hardly be considered “urban”. However, we are using the term to describe our situation as our property is zoned “residential” and we are doing small scale, organic growing of fruits and vegetables on one acre. Lantzville is a small community (population 3,500) just north of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Even the name, Lantzville, evokes images of small town comraderie, walking down main street, basket in hand, to see the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. It’s surprising that on such a quiet, rural, two-block long, dead-end road, with forest across the street and acreages on either side of us, that we would end up being ordered to stop such an essential activity as growing food for others because of a particular bylaw.


The below links show just how ridiculous these situations are becoming.

U.S. urban farmer fined for growing food:

A local farmer hobbyist in DeKalb County, Georgia, who sells or gives away the various organic vegetables he grows for fun on his land, as he has for 15 years, is now being sued by the government.

http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/2010/09/14/cabbage-gate-punish-the-productive-georgia-county-sues-local-farmer-for-growing-too-many-vegetables-on-his-land/

A Calgary man in court over his right to have chickens: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Feathers+another+Cowtown+chicken+caper/3920399/story.html

Toronto bylaws squash veggie plot:

What constitutes a “natural” garden to the City of Toronto? Grass, apparently. Just grass. Plus, perhaps a few flowers. But certainly not vegetables.

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/outdoorliving/gardeningandlandscaping/article/877949–the-real-dirt-city-squashes-front-yard-veggie-plot

Bylaw enforcement uses conservation officer who uses police in going overboard:

http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/1356483

The destruction of much of Vancouver Island’s slaughter house capacity:

In 2004, Saltspring Island produced 2,342 lambs, and longtime residents were already worrying about the low numbers. By 2008, the tally was 44 per cent lower — a drop of more than 1,000 lambs in five years.

http://thetyee.ca/Life/2010/03/11/LambsToSlaughter/

Our local newspaper gets a record breaking 130 comments on one of the articles on our particular issue:

Well-known urban farmer and local food production advocate Dirk Becker has been ordered to shut down his 2.5-acre Lantzville farm because of a home business bylaw that does not include agriculture in its regulations.

http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/story.html?id=c59ffbaa-16ec-4768-a0d1-d6df650e2ff0

Gardening Allotments Lead to “Staggering” 51% Fall in Anti-social Behaviour
http://wakeup-world.com/2011/08/16/gardening-allotments-lead-to-staggering-51-fall-in-anti-social-behaviour/


Reduce The Risk Of Lung Cancer by 50% With Gardening
http://wakeup-world.com/2011/07/27/reduce-the-risk-of-lung-cancer-by-50-with-gardening/
Along those lines, gardening means exposure to the sun and its known vitamin D-supplying qualities that have been linked to the prevention of some cancers and a wide variety of other illnesses and diseases.

In fact, along the lines of exposure to the sun, scientists now believe that exposure can actually help prevent skin cancer because sunlight exposure helps in the body’s manufacture of vitamin D, a cancer-stunting agent in its own right.


Six Fun Gardening Projects
http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/02/six-fun-gardening-projects/



http://wakeup-world.com/2011/11/01/eating-out-of-the-gutter-literally/
Eating Out of the Gutter…Literally