The Urban Orchardist

I found out today that it’s true that it’s illegal for me to grow chard on my lot.

I wish that was an April Fool’s joke.

Triggered by the San Francisco Chronicle’s story about me, a really cool guy came by from the City of Oakland Planning Department and walked me through the issue. This is what I wanted from the beginning–direct communication from the city. What I found out is kind of sucky, but better than that feeling of not knowing, or facing a complete shut-down of my farmlette.

The deal is that growing any food on an “empty lot” in the City of Oakland is illegal. I’m supposed to have applied for a conditional use permit to grow vegetables. What’s crazy is this law is on lots of books throughout America. Now that just ain’t American–can’t we do what we want on our private property? After 8 years of flouting laws by squat gardening in the lot, I lost my punk renegade status when I bought the lot, but now, paradoxically, my outlaw status was regained by buying it and continuing to be a farmer. Shoulda stayed punk, I guess.

Water under the bridge, though. I asked the City guy what I should do. Luckily, in two weeks, April 14, the Phase 1 of Oakland’s new urban ag laws will take effect, making it legal to grow vegetables on empty lots. What will still be illegal is my bodacious chicken/duck/rabbit palace–Phase 1 doesn’t cover livestock.

If I want to keep livestock (which I do, very important to have manure for the garden, but also a great source of eggs and meat and happiness), I have to apply for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) which will cost $2500. That’s sucky. If I want to sell produce, I should apply for a business license which costs $40 (no worries). I’m going to do all of this and become so sparklingly legit I can’t be targeted by haters.

What good can come out of this? I guess people should learn from me and apply for the CUP. Or learn from me, and just live under the radar, don’t blog about farmstands (they are watching you), stay undercover and enjoy the outlaw status. If you’re interested in getting involved with legalizing local food production in Oakland, the guy from the City urged people to get involved with the next stages of planning for urban ag in Oakland–Phase 2 will be unveiled in 6-8 months, and they need people to show up and tell the city which direction to go. Should they allow livestock on property like mine without a CUP (that would be nice…who can afford $2500?), how many animals should they allow and what kind? what else should they allow–the sale of homemade products? what about animal processing and classes? If you’re interested in going to meetings and shaping the new laws, email the woman in charge of organizing this dialogue (this includes you rabbit fanatics–I agree that everyone should have a say in their government, but please, don’t be such wack-a-dos and recognize that the worst contributors to animal pain are large factory farms, why don’t you spend time fighting them instead? we have more in common than you think.): hklein@oaklandnet.com

Now I’m going to go take a nap, because all of this has been really stressful and exhausting. Thanks for your support. Oh, and yeah, I need to raise $2500–anyone have any ideas? Guess the nap is going to have to wait.

Big love to you all.

Hello everyone! Know that I’m holding up okay, mostly because of your words of support, and the love I’m getting from my friends and neighbors. Some quick clarifications before I go on with this post:

1. i’m getting in trouble for selling the chard. it is legal to grow vegetables and have various livestock in Oakland, so don’t freak out. the fact that i’ve been selling it is the issue. of course i would argue that my farmstand is by suggested donation.

2. i haven’t been fined, just threatened. like all good citizens, i’ll just wait to hear from the Man.

3.  I’ve heard that April 14 there may be some new rules about the selling of produce, so I’ll be fine and we’ll have gotten worked up about nothing.

Back to the post: This morning I went to Brother’s Market to get Mosed to take my rooster (I’m sure I’ll get busted for that soon as I’m under the microscope now–none of my neighbors have complained), and told him about what was happening. He’s really pissed, “You don’t sell!” he yelled. “We just come and pick, for the community.” I’ll probably make up a petition for people in the neighborhood to sign. Then I went to pick some weeds for my rabbits.

After I fed them, I read some email, and got a really scary one. The woman asked that I didn’t use her name, but here’s the story:

I believe that I probably know whomever filed the complaint about you, that they are probably an animal rights person, most likely a house-rabbit person who volunteers with animals at the Oakland Animal Shelter. I used to volunteer there with rabbits, and there was a feeling of horror among the other rabbit workers that you were breeding them for meat. Some of them are vegan, but others are just rabbit-lovers. They said they were going to complain about it to the city. That was a year ago, more or less. They crowed at one point because maybe your goats were forced off-site? I disagreed with them, because I think a person can love animals AND also conduct local farming, including eating your own animals. But they were VERY firm that eating rabbits was somewhere in the realm of murder, and I never said anything. Frankly I was afraid they would run me out of there on a pole. Their attitudes, along with my full schedule, led me away from volunteering at the Shelter eventually.

Now I feel guilty for having said nothing, because it sounds like they have finally made good on their promise. Honestly I don’t think it would have done any good for me to speak up. Those who were most horrified about the rabbits would have done it anyway. There might have been one or 2 other non-extremists like me, and I wish I had spoken up for their benefit.So they would see they are not monolithic. I also feel guilty for not having sent you some kind of warning, but I don’t know you, and I didn’t know if it would sound nuts. “The rabbit people are after you!”? And what could you do anyway?

This is pretty much what I figured, a rabbit person who hates me for growing my own food, lodged the complaint. I was sure it wasn’t a NIMBY neighbor, because we all get along.

I’m going to fight, but before that I’m letting myself cry a lot. Especially when I get messages like this:

We are all military wives stuck in Fort Polk Louisiana, all three of us were sad beyond words and then one day I picked up your book.
We have now started our own little garden on my two acre lot in the middle of a housing area. 🙂
We get bees this weekend and will have chickens and rabbits by the end of the summer.
I wonder if you know, really know, how your life, your writing and just who you are inspires and touches people.
Dont give up!! If you need us to do a bake sale to raise money for you, sell some of our seedlings or even do a yard sale, we will be more than happy to help you in any way we can. You have a huge support system that you might not have even known was there. 🙂

Amen for you all.