Some of the most vicious threats to individual rights and liberty occur not on the federal but on the local level. Clint Bolick, an attorney who has combated many local governmental assaults on citizens around the country, once wrote a book to make the point entitled Leviathan: The Growth of Local Government and the Erosion of Liberty.
Example? Consider the zany local edict issued in the little town of Lake Elmo, Minnesota. The Institute for Justice — Bolick’s old stomping ground — informs us that the city council there has begun “enforcing a law that makes it illegal for farmers to sell products from their own land unless they were grown within Lake Elmo.”
Two of the farmers being threatened with fines and 90 days in jail are Richard and Eileen Bergman, who have tilled the land in Lake Elmo for almost four decades. They grow pumpkins. But part of their farm extends beyond the city limits, and most of their pumpkins grow on that out-of-Elmo part.
The Institute for Justice has filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the town’s ban on out of-of-town pumpkins. Council members who support the ban must have some ludicrous theory about how such totalitarian edicts goose the local economy. But the ban is certainly no good for folks stopped from buying and selling what they want to buy and sell.
And how, pray tell, do you promote local farming by throwing local farmers in jail?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Farm at Your Own Risk”
In my lifetime, I have seen local control get worse than the Federal Government. You do not own or control your own property anymore, You rent it from City,County and pay taxes for more control over your life. BFJ age, 89
[…] Paul Jacob applies common sense to highlight an instance of ‘localism’ gone berzerk. […]
…..I live in the country, NORTH EAST OHIO, and we have zoning issues. Some run contrary to those of us who farm and have: PRODUCE STANDS ON OUR FARMS. SOME ZONING LAWS ALLOW YOU TO SELL MORE THEN JUST WHAT YOU HARVEST. OTHERS WILL SHUT YOU DOWN QUICKLY IF YOU SELL PRODUCTS NOT GROWN OR MADE ON YOUR PROPERTY. THE PURPOSE IS STRICTLY TO CONTROL THE RETAIL SALES. SOME UNSCRUPULOUS PEOPLE FROM THE CITY COME TO THE COUNTRY, AND SUBVERT THE LOCAL FARMERS PRODUCTS. TO-WIT: SWEET CORN. EARLY IN THE SUMMER, SWEET CORN COMES FROM SOUTHERN STATES, AND MARIETTA, OHIO. IT IS MIDDLE JULY, NOW, AND OUR SWEET CORN IS STILL NOT READY TO PICK. THOSE OF US EFFECTED BY THE “ZONING” RULES KNOW NOT TO BUY THE AFORE MENTIONED CORN, FOR RE-SALE. WE CAN ONLY SELL WHAT WE GROW. THAT SAID, WE CAN ALSO GET A BETTER PRICE FOR OUR BETTER SWEET CORN. THE “FLY-BY-NIGHT” “HUCKSTERS” WANT YOU TO BELIEVE THEIR CORN IS LOCAL, BUT A CHECK WITH THE DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE, AND YOU SOON SEE IT IS A LIE. THESE SAME PEOPLE CAN BE SEEN WITH THEIR TRUCKS AT THE CLEVELAND PRODUCE TERMINAL, BUYING PRODUCE TO COMPETE WITH OUR HOME GROWN PRODUCTS……TOSS THEM ALL IN JAIL………THEY SELL US GARBAGE THAT THE SUPER MARKETS WON’T PUT ON THEIR SHELVES, AND THEN TELL THE CUSTOMERS THAT THEY GREW IT OUT HERE IN THE FARM COUNTRY. THE CUSTOMER GETS SCREWED, AND ENJOYS IT BECAUSE HE THINKS HE HAS SAVED A BUCK. I WATCHED A COMMISSION MERCHANT ROLL OUT 100 CASES OF BANANAS. THEY HAD BEEN “GASSED TO MUCH”, AND WERE BREAKING WITH ONLY A DAY OR TWO OF RIPENESS TIL THEY ROTTED. THOSE BANANAS WERE TAKEN OUT TO SOME OF THE “COUNTRY MARKETS” & AUCTION SALES BARNS BY 9 AM….ROTTEN GARBAGE THAT PEOPLE THOUGHT WERE SO GREAT, THAT WERE PROBABLY SPOILED BEFORE THEY GOT HOME…I DON’T LIKE THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT “BUTTING” THERE NOSE IN MY BUSINESS, BUT AS FAR AS FARMING IS CONCERNED, I WELCOME THEM COMING IN AND PROSECUTING FRAUD & ZONING VIOLATIONS. BY THE WAY, DO YOU KNOW OF ANY BANANA PLANTATIONS IN OHIO???IF YOU DO, I HAVE SEVERAL BRIDGES FOR SALE IN THE SAHARA DESERT….CHEAP!