Florida couple sues city after being forced to remove family vegetable garden

The village of Miami Shores in Miami, Florida, brands itself as a progressive neighborhood that promotes "green living." But local residents Hermine Ricketts and Tom Carroll have found that this is not exactly an honest designation, as village officials recently ordered them to uproot a family vegetable garden that they have been cultivating peacefully for some 17 years in their front yard, or else face daily fines of $50 per citation.

The couple was ordered to remove their garden back on May 8, 2013, just one day after a controversial zoning revision was passed that suddenly prohibited the planting of vegetables in residents' front yards. However, the same ordinance oddly allows for the front yard planting of fruit trees, fruit plants and other so-called "kitsch" items like pink flamingos and garden gnomes, which some might argue are more obtrusive.

The couple has long grown vegetables in their front yard, because their backyard gets minimal sunlight, which makes it difficult to cultivate the types and amount of food they need to live. And their front yard garden has never been a nuisance, having always been cared for and manicured with love, and with no issues from any of the neighbors.

But Miami Shores officials wanted it gone, threatening the couple with daily fines if they did not uproot it. They repeatedly petitioned the city with formal requests to keep the garden, but the code enforcement board denied these requests. The couple eventually agreed to uproot the garden but are now suing the city for what they say is a blatant violation of their right to privacy.

"The right to grow and harvest your own food on your very own property is certainly part of that right to acquire, possess, and protect property," says Ari Bargil, the couple's attorney. Bargil works for the non-profit public interest firm Institute for Justice (IFJ), which took on the case. "A ban on front yard vegetable gardens makes no sense. A property and a front yard doesn't become unsightly ... simply because you're growing vegetables."

Ban on front yard vegetables is unconstitutional, says IFJ lawyer

Bargil says that the ban clearly violates Florida's "Basic Rights Clause," which upholds the right of Florida residents to use their properties for any peaceful and productive use that does not harm others. A basic vegetable garden, he says, in no way violates these provisions, and the village will have a tough time defending its position in court.

"Miami Shores will have to prove that its ban promotes a compelling governmental interest and is narrowly tailored to advance that interest," reads an official IFJ press release about the case. "We're not suing for money. We're asking the court to rule that this law is unconstitutional so Hermine and Tom can plant their garden again."

In the meantime, Hermine is continuing to tend to a few herbs and a papaya tree that remain in her front yard, as she hopes for the day that she will once again be able to plant all the food that she had before. Buying everything clean and organic from the grocery store, she says, can be expensive, and growing her own vegetables on her own private property is simply a basic human right.

"We are already feeling the impact of shopping for overpriced organic food," she told the Miami Herald. "It's okay to have a cheap plastic thing shipped in from abroad," she added, referring to a symbolic, plastic pink flamingo she now has planted at the front of her yard, "but it is illegal to plant organic vegetables in your front yard."

Source: NaturalNews

Los Angeles May Become GMO-Free Zone as City Council Considers Ban

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Two Los Angeles City Councilmen Friday announced the introduction of a motion aimed at protecting homes, schools, community gardens and public spaces from contamination caused by plants and other genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Image: www.annarbor.com

The motion calls for a “GMO-Free Zone” across the city’s more than 502 square miles that would ban the growth, sale, and distribution of genetically engineered seeds and plants.

City Councilmen Paul Koretz and Mitch O’Farrell introduced the measure at a news conference at City Hall.

“A growing number of problems are being traced to GMOs, including the worldwide disappearance of honeybees (through “colony collapse disorder”); concerns over “seed drift” (for example the recent finding of GMO-pollinated wheat growing in an Oregon farmer’s field); the evolution of “superbug” insects which are growing immune to
the pesticides engineered within GMO crops; and European studies which raise the question of how GMOs impact human health,” according to a statement released by the Council members.

Last October, Koretz and the rest of the City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution supporting Proposition 37, which requires genetically engineered foods to be properly labeled and prohibits such foods from being marketed as “natural” in California.

Fifty-two percent of residents in Los Angeles County voted in favor of Prop. 37 last year, according to the motion.

Source: CBSLA.com

Lawyer: every GMO food is on the US market illegally

Steven Druker is a public interest attorney who, as executive director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, organized a lawsuit that forced the FDA to divulge its files on GE foods. This revealed that politically appointed administrators had covered up the warnings of their own scientists about the risks, lied about the facts, and then ushered these products onto the market in violation of explicit mandates of the law.

Image: mommypotamus.com

Russia is Considering a Total Ban on GMOs

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As one of the few nations in the world with a GMO-free platform, Russia does not allow any cultivation of GMOs for commercial purposes. Their regulatory agencies recently suspended the import and use of an American GM corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage. The Russian Prime Minister has now ordered the same agencies to consider a possible ban on all GMO imports into Russia.

The Russian Federal Environmental Assessment Commission has not adopted any commercialized GM varieties for agricultural use.

The recent decision by the Russians to suspend authorisation for American GM corn threatens to trigger a transatlantic commercial and diplomatic row.

A growing body of scientific research - done mostly in Europe, Russia, and other countries - showing that diets containing engineered corn or soya cause serious health problems in laboratory mice and rats.

Experts at the University of Caen conducted an experiment running for the full lives of rats - two years.

(RELATED: Join the March Against Monsanto happening 10/12/13: http://www.march-against-monsanto.com/p/blog-page.html)

The findings, which were peer reviewed by independent experts before being published in a respected scientific journal, found raised levels of breast cancer, liver and kidney damage.

Russian Prime Minister Announces Possible Ban On All Imports

Russia’s consumer rights watchdog and Health Ministry, Rospotrebnadzor, announced one year ago that it had suspended the import and use of the Monsanto GM corn.

Now, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the relevant agencies to consider a possible ban of all imports into Russia of products containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) by October 15.

The order is addressed to Rospotrebnadzor, the Agriculture Ministry, and the Trade and Economic Development Ministry. They have been ordered to “submit proposals on amendments to the Russian legislation aimed at tightening control over the turnover of products containing components obtained from GMOs together with the relevant federal executive bodies.”

The aforementioned agencies are also ordered to submit proposals “on the possibility of banning the import of such products into the Russian Federation.”

A list of the prime minister’s orders was drawn up to fulfill the presidential orders issued after the meeting on the socio-economic development of the Rostov region held on September 18. Medvedev’s orders have been posted on the government website, Interfax news agency reported last September 25.

Russia is currently taking a hard line on GMOs -- in August the first independent project for identifying whether Russian farmers are growing illegal GM crops started in the Belgorod region.

NAGS (The National Association for Genetic Safety) conducted the first checks of agricultural crops for the presence of GMOs. No GMO plants were found in any Belgorod fields.

According to the current law, 19 GM lines are allowed in foodstuffs, but the cultivation of GMOs is not allowed.

After joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Russia is being pressured simplify the procedure for registration of genetically modified products, seed and feed, to stop their safety checks, and to stop controls over their distribution.

Nations Banning Monsanto's Glyphosate Herbicide 

Glyphosate is the world's top selling herbicide, and Monsanto's formulations Roundup is used with more than 80 percent of all genetically modified (GM) crops grown globally. But evidence of its extreme toxicity has been emerging within the past decade. Glyphosate was found to kill human placental cells at concentrations below that recommended for agricultural use and approved by our regulators, while Roundup was lethal at even lower concentrations.

The toxic effects of Roundup (R400) begin at 5 ppm, and the first endocrine disrupting action is already evident at 0.5 ppm, 800 times lower than the level of 400 ppm authorized by the US Environment Protection Agency in food or feed.

According to one analysis, GMO corn tested by Profit Pro contains a number of elements absent from traditional cord, including chlorides, formaldehyde and glyphosate. While those elements don’t appear naturally in corn, they were present in GMO samples to the tune of 60 ppm, 200pm and 13 ppm, respectively.

“Glyphosate is a strong organic phosphate chelator that immobilizes positively charged minerals such as manganese, cobalt, iron, zinc [and] copper,” Dr. Don Huber attested during a separate GMO study recently released, adding that those elements “are essential for normal physiological functions in soils, plants and animals.”

El Salvador has recently voted to ban glyphosate, the pesticide that most GM crops are designed to be grown with, along with 52 other chemicals.

Predictably, protests have been raised by the GM lobby group CropLife, which is scaremongering about losses of up to 60% in crop production if the chemicals are banned.

CropLife is funded by the big GM companies, including Monsanto.
http://www.powerbase.info/index.php/CropLife_International

The news of the historic El Salvadorean vote comes on the anniversary of the publication of the groundbreaking study led by Prof GE Seralini, which found that the glyphosate-based pesticide Roundup - and a GM maize engineered to tolerate it - caused severe organ damage and increased rates of tumours and premature death in rats. Roundup was found to be toxic at half the level permitted in EU drinking water.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637

Denmark has also imposed widespread bans on the spraying of glyphosate in response to research showing that the sprays have been contaminating the countrys groundwater.

The chemical has, against all expectations sieving down through the soil and polluting the ground water at a rate of five times more than the allowed level for drinking water, according to tests done by the Denmark and Greenland Geological Research Institution (DGGRI).

A decade ago, the Danish environment minister Hans Christian Schmidt announced unprecedented restrictions on glyphosate, the country's and Europe's most widely used herbicide.

Sources: 
gmwatch.org
preventdisease.com
rt.com
organic.com.au

Natasha Longo has a master's degree in nutrition and is a certified fitness and nutritional counselor. She has consulted on public health policy and procurement in Canada, Australia, Spain, Ireland, England and Germany.

Shared from realfarmacy.com

Costa Rica Joins the Growing List of Countries Banning GMOs

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In a unanimous vote the Municipal Council of San Jose passed a motion banning transgenic food from the region. The new measure prohibits the sale, consumption and growth of genetically modified food within the municipality.

Image: www.ticotimes.net

The municipality’s decision comes less than a month following the decision from Costa Rica’s National Biosecurity Technical Commission to allow multinational company Monsanto to grow genetically modified corn in the country.

Related: Join the March Against Monsanto on October 12th

More than half of Costa Rica’s local authorities or cantons have voted to ban GM crops in protest against Monsanto gaining a foothold in the country.

Over 2/3rds of Costa Rica has banned GM

Latest reports are that 56 of the 81 cantons have outlawed GM crops in support of popular demonstrations against Monsanto using Costa Rica as a nursery to grow GM seed for export.

The backlash against GMs began in late 2012 when a Monsanto subsidiary, Delta & Pine Land, asked for permission to plant about five acres of maize with four GM seed varieties giving herbicide tolerance and insect resistance.

This sparked a rash of protests across the country, and hundreds of people massed in front of the National Technical Commission of Biosafety (CTNBio) headquarters, the body in charge of the applications for the release of GMOs. CTNBio has been heavily criticised for limiting access to information and participation in discussions about GM seeds.

Eventually, CTNBio said Monsanto could go ahead. Protesters were furious that the decision followed others allowing GM cotton, soybeans, bananas, and pineapples to grow in the country. The acreage is small but the symbolism is huge: allowing Monsanto in could increase large scale commercial exploitation of Costa Rica’s extraordinary environment.

Read the full article

Source: realfarmacy.com