Free Talk Live

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — DeKalb County is suing a local farmer for growing too many vegetables, but he said he will fight the charges in the ongoing battle neighbors call “Cabbagegate.”

A Georgia resident who has been an organic farmer for years is now facing $5000 dollars in fines for growing too many vegetables on his OWN land. That’s right.

Why Is a Farmer Who Sells Extra Milk From His One Cow to Neighbors Being Sued By the State of Maine?

The lawsuit also challenges a 'local food and community self-governance' ordinance.
December 7, 2011 |

This is the first in a two-part series by the Center for Media and Democracy's Food Rights Network (FRN) about challenges to local food sovereignty across the United States. You can read the second one

Gathered here in Bonn this week are some eighty Right Livelihood Award laureates, including the Canadian farmer Percy Schmeiser, who has battled the biotech giant Monsanto for years. When Monsanto seeds blew into Schmeiser’s property, Monsanto accused him of illegally planting their crops and took him to court. Ultimately his case landed in the Canadian Supreme Court. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for fighting to defend the rights of farmers and the future of seeds.

When confronted by police, he responded with a flinty New Hampshire-style defiance that has resonated with sympathizers across the state: "Yes, I’m not going to hang my head in shame; I smoke a little pot"
The town has rallied behind the farmer; "I SUPPORT FARMER DAVE" T-Shirts are still selling briskly, 2 years after the initial bust.

FTA: "In the video, Flint Farmer was lying on the grass between the curb and the sidewalk. It was shortly before 2 a.m. on a June morning in the West Englewood neighborhood, and Farmer had been shot by a Chicago police officer. Then, according to the video, the veteran officer, Gildardo Sierra, stepped onto the parkway and walked a semicircle about the prone Farmer as three bright flashes went off. The flashes, captured by a police car video camera, were fatal shots fired into Farmer's back, officials say.

Being a cop is so dangerous! Well, not as dangerous as being a farmer, garbageman, , pilot, fisherman, logger, roofer, deliveryman.......you get the point.

The Senate agreed that small farms that earn less than $500,000 a year and sell directly to their buyer can be exempt from the Food Safety Bill. But does a local farmer understand economics better than the government?... Local farmer, Dale Artho says more regulations still mean more cost to farmers because of increased testing and inspections. Artho says "All regulations end up being born by two people: the producer and the consumer. Both of us will share in the cost of those in the long run and our country becomes increasingly more expensive to live in. So, how much do you want to spend?"

A farmer who built a castle hidden behind a stack of straw bales has lost a High Court bid to save it from being demolished.