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Loading...Urban Farmer Told to Shut Down or Face Legal Action
While Kitty Sharkey tends her Nigerian dwarf goats and her ducks, chickens and rabbits in her Oakland, California backyard, a Vancouver Island urban homesteader faces legal action if he doesn’t tear up his small farm.
Dirk Becker’s Compassion Farm has run afoul of Lantzville, British Columbia’s bylaw against farming within municipal limits. One of the 3,661 people counted in the last (2006) census objected to his selling vegetables grown on his 2.5-acre lot in the seaside community.
Becker and his partner, Nicole Shaw, received notice from the District of Lantzville in November 2010 that they had 90 days to cease all agricultural activity. To put this in context, they live on a road most city dwellers would consider semi-rural. Three doors down from them, a neighbor raises cows. At the end of the road, horses graze in pastures. So to be told they could not grow vegetables and fruit struck Nicole as a “head shaker.”
Making the land live again
Becker and Shaw have restored a damaged piece of land. A Nanaimo Web site states, “the previous owner used an excavator and dump truck to mine and scrape the land bare. He had a soil screener set up on the property, selling the soil, then sand, then gravel, which resulted in lowering the level of this property by about four feet. When Dirk assumed ownership of this property, all that remained was gravel. There were no worms, no grasshoppers, no birds, no butterflies; essentially – no living creatures!”
According to a CBC report, the District of Lantzville “is working on a new bylaw that would allow for-profit farming on residential property.” Becker could apply for a temporary permit until the new bylaw is in place. There is no guarantee it would be awarded, and Becker has a number of objections to doing so. He wants the council to appoint a committee to develop the bylaw, and he expresses concern the bylaw may be too restrictive. He also worries the Temporary Use Permit could be withdrawn at any time.
In March 2011, on the District of Lantzville Web site, Mayor Colin Haime posted a message to residents. He cautioned, “Although Council has been receiving a variety of communications on the numerous benefits of local food production, there have also been concerns expressed as it relates to the increase of traffic, odour (stemming from the organic materials used in these instances), importation of foreign materials, potential contaminants, potential well contamination, water use and pests. Further, the question has been raised as to why intensive agricultural activities should be allowed within residential areas when there is significant agriculturally zoned properties that are not currently being used for agricultural activities.”
Read more: agriculture, farming, local farms, local food, organic farming, real food, sustainable food, urban agriculture
Photo of Compassion Farm, used by permission
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Awesome.
@ Carol M. What has the Bible to do with harassment proselytizing?
Your analogy, Carol, relies on a FALSE EQUIVALENCY. Furthermore, the right to privacy is a PRESUMED…
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143 comments
+ add your ownwow, now to be stronger locally is bad, yeah in th emeanwhile big corporations can do wathever they want with land and food, such a shame and nonsense!!!
Who are the 1% that voted "no" in this poll? Oh, I know ... the same 1% from Wall Street, that want to crush everyone else with rules and oppressive taxes and the like.
I want to have chickens, but can't because I officially live in the city,although I'm only 2,000 ft from the line and in back of my house are miles of woods. I have no real neighbors next to me-- they sit back from my lot. Around the corner, this guy has 4 dogs that bark all the time, but having a few chickens is considered a nuisance. I can travel up the road a 1/4 mile and watch the chickens scratch in a yard because they are officially out of the city and in the township.
That's insane.
so ridiculous. support farmers!
If run-off and smell are the only issues, then why not simply make the farms conditional in that regard? (And this can be applied to large farms too!)
1) The land owner must make sure that run-off is caught. Perhaps a ditch around the borders, leading to a small holding pond with either filtering material or water-tight lining. The water can be re-used to water the crops in times of not enough rain, or remain as a small pond.
To keep it from becoming a mosquito issue, Australian non-biting mosquitoes can be released into it (This should be a widespread solution for everyone; chemical-free. The larvae eat biting-mosquito larvae, then the adults grow up to become pollinators!)
2) The land owner should have an enclosed composter, which if made properly should almost completely negate the issue of smell. Raw manure should NOT be spread directly on the ground or the crops; it increases risk of food poisoning. It can still be used, along with old food, but should be composted into soil properly first.
So there we go, the problems cited are no longer an issue, and the garden stays. Win-win! Any way we can submit these suggestions to them more directly?
another overpaid local government enforcing archaic and silly rules, it happens in Australia like this all the time. The farm is sinking so much carbon and doing alot of good for locals and the owners, shame common sense isnt a prerequisite of political candidates!
Local produce sure beats 'whatever' from countries that don't mind shipping poisons overseas.
another shot of stupid from the govt..........we need as many farms and home growing of vegetables, herbs, etc. as we can get. with deforrestation, all the flooding and tornado damage, drought and people losing their farms to the banks..........Remember Govt. Officials....we must eat to live, we need plants for air to breathe. Any thing else I can help you with.
Land grabs by governments that tell you how your own property must be used. We are in the early stages but it will get worse as we all are kept busy watching the latest shiny objects in the media. Mineral rights are another thing to watch when you are signing documents. The government could make your land useless to you as they can drill on it for gas etc.
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