NEWSHOMESTEADING

One backyard beekeeper is learning that when it comes to managing his hive, it's not the bees that are dangerous, so much as local regulations.

Forsyth County, Georgia resident Nicholas Weaver has been raising bees for the past 12 years, starting the hobby when he was just 13 years old. When he first started beekeeping, he and his family researched the legalities of beekeeping in their area: they checked local zoning codes; asked fellow beekeepers; and made sure that the neighborhood association didn’t have any prohibitions regarding honeybees. They couldn't find any laws against raising honeybees, and thus began Weaver's hobby.

Yet, in August of this year, Weaver had a zoning violation filed against him through the Code Enforcement Office. Upon further research, Weaver found that, despite this violation notice, bees and beekeeping are not addressed anywhere within residential zoning regulations of the Unified Development Code. What he learned was that in instances like this one in which an issue like beekeeping is not legislated about, it is up to the discretion of the Planning and Development Director of the Forsyth County Planning and Zoning Department to decide the legality of the practice.

Despite a lack of legislation about beekeeping, in Forsyth County, and in most Georgia counties, the majority of honeybees are in fact raised in residential areas by "backyard beekeepers." Without these local, sustainable beekeepers, the survival of the European honeybee would be at risk.

This is a guest post written by Nora Pouillon, a chef a restauranteur. Her Washington, D.C.-based eatery, Restaurant Nora, is the first certified organic restaurant in the U.S. Nora is an advisor to National Food Day.

Putting food on the pedestal it deserves has been my goal for the last 40 years. Food is my medium. I started Restaurant Nora in 1979 with the goal of sharing healthy, wholesome food with my family, friends, and customers. In doing so, I have sought to demonstrate the importance of organically grown and raised food as a means of not only nourishing our bodies and souls, but also of preserving and improving our environment.

On October, 24, Food Day will draw attention to the dire straits of our global food system and set in motion a grassroots movement to inspire individuals to make safe, sustainable, and healthy food a priority—if not the highest priority—in their lives. Which is exactly what is urgently needed.

The statistics for lifestyle-related disease in the United States alone are staggering. A remarkable 68 percent of adults are considered overweight and 30 percent are obese. One in three children is considered overweight. Some 25.8 million adults and children in America have diabetes. And 26.8 million adults have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, which is the number-one killer in the United States. Food has a direct link to both disease prevalence and prevention, especially in tandem with other lifestyle measures. We need a national day like Food Day to bring awareness to the fact that whatever we put in our mouths—and the quality of what we put in our mouths—is of utmost importance.

In addition to its role in sustaining or degrading health, food is inextricably linked to our lives as citizens of this planet. How we grow and raise food, starting with how the environment is treated in the process, will dictate our ability to continue to sustain life on Earth. Producing safe, healthy food is the ultimate goal of our agricultural system, which also links animal and worker welfare, social issues like food access and affordability, and again, the maintenance of environmental health.

After a fruitful campaign on Change.org, a Memphis urban garden will keep on growing.

Adam Guerrero grows vegetables, produces biodiesel, raises honeybees, and composts in the front and back yards of his Memphis home. He even brings some of the local students by to teach them about sustainable food production. But after a neighbor complained about the smells emanating from the yard and a county judge deemed the operation to be a “nuisance,” Guerrero worried that he would have to dismantle the garden he’s cultivated for the past two years.

Two Memphis residents, Kristen Heath and Hannah Giles, didn’t want the community to lose the treasured garden, so they turned to Change.org. The women created a petition to save Guerrero’s garden. After only one week, the online petition got nearly 9,000 signatures and was covered in local newspapers and TV stations, Grist, Treehugger, and even the Washington Post. The two women also organized local rallies and protests in support of Guerrero.

"I was very angry that what this teacher was trying to do for his students was just taken apart and not even looked at," Heath told WREG after she created the petition.

On Friday, Guerrero received some good news. He attended his follow-up hearing with Judge Larry Potter armed with a lawyer and photos showcasing his efforts to clean up—but not dismantle—his garden. Judge Potter agreed that Guerrero’s garden was headed in the right direction and that so long as the teacher continued to tidy up the operation, he could keep it.  According to news reports, the judge clarified his original stance: He said he never told Guerrero he couldn't have a garden, but that in order to have one, he would need to seriously clean it up.

Memphis resident and school teacher, Adam Guerrero, brings new meaning to the term "green thumb." In the front and back yards of his Nutbush-area home, Guerrero grows eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers; makes his own biodiesel and soap; composts all of his food scraps; harvests rainwater; and even raises honeybees.

Guerrero's urban garden is certainly a community attraction. It's a big hit with the local students he invites over to learn gardening and food production skills. The operation even earned high praise from Felder Rushing, author of several gardening books and board member of the American Horticulture Association. Rushing recently told Commercial Appeal that Guerrero's garden was "his kind of yard."

But despite Guerrero's good deeds and growing fan club, his garden may not live beyond this week.

In fewer than five days, more than 2,500 people have joined an online campaign urging a judge to save a Memphis urban garden from destruction.

Memphis residents Kristen Heath and Hannah Giles launched the campaign on Change.org after reading about Adam Guerrero’s garden in the local newspaper.

Guerrero, a high school math teacher and board member of the organization GrowMemphis, grows vegetables, raises honeybees, and produces biodiesel in the yard of his Nutbush-area home. Judge Larry Potter recently deemed Guerrero’s garden to be a “nuisance” that contained “rubbish or garbage,” and ruled that he must dismantle the operation. Guerrero is set to appear in court on Friday, September 23, 2011, to prove that he complied with Judge Potter’s ruling. Local citizens are working to reverse the ruling before Friday’s hearing.

In fewer than 48 hours, more than 300 people have joined a campaign on Change.org calling on Los Angeles City Council members to support gardening in the city.

Ron Finley, a South Los Angeles resident who launched the online petition campaign at Change.org, is asking that councilmembers amend an ordinance which requires residents to obtain costly permits before growing gardens on parkways, the city-owned strips of land between curbs and sidewalks.

“The high cost of the permit to plant is very prohibitive for communities will very little excess income,” said Finley. “A lot of these places have very few options for healthy fruits and vegetables, so they are being called ‘food deserts.’ Parkway gardens would add food options, enhance lives, open up communication, and build stronger ties in communities."

Los Angeles residents are required to maintain their parkways by mowing and watering them. But under a local ordinance, citizens wishing to grow plants on parkways must first obtain permits which cost at least $400 and up to thousands of dollars. Even with the permits, plants can be no taller than 36 inches.

Ron Finley's South Los Angeles property isn't like any other on the block. Thanks to his supporters and Change.org, it will stay that way.

Los Angeles regulations mandate that residents maintain their homes' parkways, the city-owned strips of grass that separate the curb from the sidewalk. While most citizens water and mow their parkways, Finley decided to do something more useful with the plot in front of his Crenshaw-area home. He turned it into a vibrant urban garden, growing a variety of fresh fruits and veggies like watermelon, kale, and tomatoes.

His seemingly innocuous hobby got him into trouble with the law.

While the oasis was a big hit with most neighbors and passersby, Finley's produce patch was technically illegal. L.A. regulations say that residents must apply for and obtain an expensive permit before growing food on parkways. One neighbor's complaint and Finley's lack of a permit earned him a citation, and officials threatened to make the gardener turn his cornucopia back into a patch of grass.

UPDATE 8/22/11: Change.org just got word that the hearing about Ron Finley's garden has been postponed until further notice. This is a great sign of progress, and we will update you with more information as it becomes available.

Most of South Central Los Angeles' parkways — plots of public land between the sidewalk and curb — feature nothing more than scraggly patches of grass. But not the parkway in front of Ron Finley's house. The stretch of land near the Crenshaw resident's home is an urban oasis brimming with fresh kale, tomatoes, squash, melons, and a bounty of other fruits and vegetables. Not only does the garden beautify one of the most economically depressed communities in all of L.A., it serves as an education spot for children and even provides neighbors with fresh fruits and veggies.

"It's fresh, healthy, organic food rather than the GMOs and no-flavored stuff at the store that you don’t know where it came from or how far it was trucked," says Finley.

The garden certainly sounds too good to be true. And if the city gets its way, it just might be: Depending on the results of a hearing scheduled for this Friday, August 26th, Finley may be forced to turn his garden back into grass.

Finley started planting the Crenshaw produce patch back in December with the organization he helped create, L.A. Green Grounds, which works to establish gardens throughout South Los Angeles. Finley's fruits and veggies quickly burst into bloom, but in May he received some bad news: City officials issued him a citation for violating city code. Depending on what happens during this Friday's hearing, Finley could be forced to level his garden and replace it with a traditional grass parkway.

They say that you don’t choose to be a beekeeper — the bees choose you. So when a swarm of honeybees showed up in our garden in Los Angeles, we were unknowingly recruited into the ranks of beekeepers, an order that includes everyone from Aristotle, Luke the Apostle, Alexander the Great, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Leo Tolstoy, Thomas Edison — all the way through to First Lady Michelle Obama.

Our fascination quickly turned us into advocates when we learned that our city's policy is to exterminate feral swarms of bees rather than rescue them.  Given the threat of Colony Collapse Disorder to global honeybee populations, this is not something we felt we could stand by and watch happen. That's why we're working to get urban beekeeping legalized in the Mar Vista section of Los Angeles, where we live.

As Albert Einstein reportedly said, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” The reason for his grim prognosis is the fact that the histories of the human species and that of the honeybee are inseparable. Neither species could have evolved to present conditions without the symbiotic relationship that we harbor. In fact, bees pollinate 80 percent of the world’s plants — including 90 different food crops — which means that one out of every three-to-four bites of food is courtesy of a honeybee.

Sustainable foodies know that the benefits of raising backyard chickens are many. Fresh eggs for your omelet? That's just scratching the surface. Chickens eat up insects, including ticks (so there's less need for harmful chemical pesticides), provide fertilizer, and gobble up table scraps (think less waste headed to a landfill or down the garbage disposal). They are increasingly kept as backyard pets for their nutritious eggs and the satisfaction that comes with raising a small amount of one's own food.

Boston residents have a tough time keeping backyard flocks, though, as Audra Karp recently found out. Karp was keeping three backyard hens when Animal Control officials left a notice on her door. Karp had been raising the hens for about a year already, but officers told her that the birds had to go. The trio of birds was relocated, but Karp is currently fighting to get them back. She's hoping to get hens classified as pets rather than livestock, as they are currently labeled.

Last week, Karp went before the city's zoning board to appeal the decision barring backyard chickens. While her request was denied, the battle is far from over: A group of concerned citizens formed "Legalize Chickens in Boston," a grassroots organization that's fighting to make it easier for backyard farmers to get started. The group is generating local support, and members recently started a petition on Change.org.