A Homemade Life
Welcome to Homemade Life.

To take full advantage of everything offered by our forum, please log in if you are already a member or join our community if not ....

Chilli-head
A Homemade Life
Would you like to react to this message? Create an account in a few clicks or log in to continue.
Who is online?
In total there are 2 users online :: 0 Registered, 0 Hidden and 2 Guests

None

Most users ever online was 112 on 8th October 2020, 7:09 am
Latest topics
» Hungry Birds
by Dirick55 7th December 2023, 6:04 am

» PRESENTATION
by Chilli-head 23rd November 2023, 2:55 pm

» New Kiva loan
by Chilli-head 21st July 2023, 12:35 pm

» A peat-free compost is top in UK Which? magazine trial
by Dandelion 25th April 2023, 9:42 pm

» New gardening year 2023
by Chilli-head 5th March 2023, 10:15 pm

» What have I done in the workshop today?
by Dandelion 2nd December 2022, 1:12 pm

» What are you harvesting today?
by Dandelion 2nd December 2022, 1:12 pm

» Wartime marrow casserole
by Dandelion 18th October 2022, 4:42 pm

» Late sowings in August ... beans ?
by Ploshkin 11th August 2022, 9:29 am

» Come August, come night in the garden
by Chilli-head 4th August 2022, 3:29 pm

» Welcome guest
by Ploshkin 31st July 2022, 9:16 am

» The Jolly July Garden
by Ploshkin 19th July 2022, 11:38 am

» More mead ...
by Chilli-head 13th July 2022, 12:52 pm

» The June garden thread
by Dandelion 25th June 2022, 9:55 pm

» Plastic bags
by Dandelion 5th June 2022, 7:28 pm

» The merry May garden
by Dandelion 31st May 2022, 10:04 pm

» Fooling around in the April garden
by freebird 1st May 2022, 8:33 am

» March into the garden
by Dandelion 1st April 2022, 7:26 pm

» Mow Suggestions
by freebird 29th March 2022, 5:48 pm

» Some thoughts on resilience
by Ploshkin 12th March 2022, 2:23 pm

Statistics
We have 270 registered users
The newest registered user is Lloyd

Our users have posted a total of 48045 messages in 2416 subjects
Pages we like:

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Hca_button


British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

4 posters

Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by Adrian 13th July 2011, 2:18 pm

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Last week Colleen brought us the story of a woman in Michigan who is facing jail time for planting a garden. Sadly, this type of heavy-handed by-the-letter enforcement of bylaws exists at the same time as people embrace urban agriculture as a viable source of high quality nutrition. A man in Lanztville, British Columbia is facing a similar battle with the local government after converting his 2.5 acre "residential" lot from a gravel pit into a thriving organic farm. His refusal to "cease all agricultural activity" could land him six months in jail.

Acting on a single complaint from a disgruntled neighbor the regional district sent a letter to Dirk Becker giving him 14 days to "remove the piles of soil and manure from the property." The quoted bylaw states that property owners will ensure their property doesn't become or remain "unsightly". Specifically this refers to "the accumulation of filth, discarded materials or rubbish, which includes unused or stripped automobiles, trucks, trailers, boats, vessels, machinery, mechanical or metal parts." Admittedly, it can be argued that, to some a manure pile could be considered "filth". But, considering how Becker regenerated his 2.5 acres (see photo above) this characterization is an insult.

Becker explains the character of his neighbourhood and the evolution of his piece of property in an article he wrote for Synergy Magazine.
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.
he 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 the property by about four feet. When Dirk assumed ownership, all that remained was gravel. There were no worms, no grasshoppers, no birds, no butterflies; essentially - no living creatures!

Since 1999, Dirk has made a tremendous effort to heal the land, beginning slowly - one wheelbarrow at a time. Nicole joined him at the end of 2006. It has been a gradual, organic process from planting a few fruit trees and having a small growing area, to expanding with more hand-made soil using wood chips from local tree companies and a small amount of horse manure from local, Lantzville stables. Now we have four kinds of bees, several types of dragonflies, numerous types of butterflies, frogs, toads, snakes, hundreds of birds and much more! We have dedicated our time to supporting hundreds of community members who have sought guidance on how to become more sustainable in their own lives; from educating people on how to support sustainable local initiatives (including 4H and homeschoolers), to teaching families how to grow their own food.


The original letter asking Becker to stop agricultural activities arrived in September, 2010. Since then, there has been a huge public outcry in support of his activities, including a decent showing of 75 people at a support rally last night. Despite this, the municipality has recently hired a law firm to pursue the matter. Becker received a couriered letter in early June, once again asking him to stop growing food or they will proceed with legal action against him. What this could amount to, according to Becker, is a judge ruling that he is "in contempt" of the district bylaw and he could be sentenced to six months in jail.
To follow this story you can connect with Becker on Facebook where he posts regular updates.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Adrian
Adrian
Founder and crotchety old git who wanders around in a threadbare dressing gown muttering

Posts : 2944
Join date : 2009-11-06
Age : 54
Location : Paradise, Nova Scotia

http://www.paradisepapercraft.ca

Back to top Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty Re: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by bronze 13th July 2011, 2:47 pm

mind boggling

I can understand hes not sticking to the rules
but I think rules are there for a reason and I can't see the reason for this one
bronze
bronze

Posts : 90
Join date : 2010-11-26
Location : Norfolk

Back to top Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty Re: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by Adrian 13th July 2011, 2:55 pm

We have an insane amount of government here in Canada.

I am subject to Town governance (byelaws and rules and local police)
County governance (byelaws and rules and RCMP)
Provincial governance (Laws) RCMP
Federal governance and RCMP.

Each with specific laws....

Bear in mind that I live in a Province that has a population less than Leeds - that is akin to the city of Leeds having its own driving licence and the Parish of Kirkstall having its own police force and bylaws
Adrian
Adrian
Founder and crotchety old git who wanders around in a threadbare dressing gown muttering

Posts : 2944
Join date : 2009-11-06
Age : 54
Location : Paradise, Nova Scotia

http://www.paradisepapercraft.ca

Back to top Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty Re: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by Hairyloon 14th July 2011, 10:54 am

Badger wrote:We have an insane amount of government here in Canada.

I am subject to Town governance (byelaws and rules and local police)
County governance (byelaws and rules and RCMP)
Provincial governance (Laws) RCMP
Federal governance and RCMP.

Each with specific laws....
Are those laws not enforced through courts?
Over here, while there are a lot of idiots in the lower courts (anyone can be a magistrate), they can quite often apply a bit of sense, and when they don't, you take it to a higher court.
Hairyloon
Hairyloon

Posts : 649
Join date : 2009-12-09
Location : UK

Back to top Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty Re: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by Adrian 14th July 2011, 11:13 am

They are HL, but it is all very unnecessary bureaucracy

Adrian
Adrian
Founder and crotchety old git who wanders around in a threadbare dressing gown muttering

Posts : 2944
Join date : 2009-11-06
Age : 54
Location : Paradise, Nova Scotia

http://www.paradisepapercraft.ca

Back to top Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty Re: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by mr_sfstk8d 14th July 2011, 3:40 pm

And there in lies the difficulty. It is entirely possible that some one could be, morally, and even technically to the letter of the law, or a given interpretaion of it, but die a slow painful death in litigation.

It's tragically common. Heaven forbid a small time inventor comes with something novel, but on the cusp of current regulatory limit, that Big Business wants to dig their shiny teeth into. If the little guy won't sell, it will either be stolen outright (good luck beating back their Lawyer Horde to defend your rights), or bludgeoned by some other abstraction of legalese until forced to go under and then, magically, the legislation changes so that Big Business is now wonderfully free to profit gluttonously once again.

Sorry for the rant, it's only a little [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] . The basic precept remains though, while the spirit of the judiciary is to protect the equal rights without preference for person, the practice of it is something entirely different.
mr_sfstk8d
mr_sfstk8d

Posts : 584
Join date : 2010-12-01
Age : 46
Location : Peoria, IL, US

Back to top Go down

British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food Empty Re: British Columbia Man Faces Six Months in Jail for Growing Food

Post by Sponsored content


Sponsored content


Back to top Go down

Back to top

- Similar topics

 
Permissions in this forum:
You cannot reply to topics in this forum