Oak Park woman’s stance negates global agriculture
ACROSS THE NATION/with Mark Anderson
OAK PARK, Mich.—Julie Bass certainly did not put publicity at the top of her list when, in mid-May, she began growing a modest front-yard garden on Dartmouth Street in this Detroit suburb. But when city bureaucrats alleged she had violated the local zoning code with her five raised-bed garden boxes and took her to court—while even considering jail time and/or fines for her—word of the controversy spread virally on the Internet. Supporters wrote to her from as far away as New Zealand, the UK and Australia.
On July 26, Mrs. Bass won in court during her second hearing. All the charges were dismissed, “without prejudice,” as she explained it to this AFP writer outside district court building 45-B that afternoon. And, later, during a conversation at her home, the well-known term “victory garden” took on a new meaning, while people she had never met before stopped by the house to congratulate her for standing her ground.
Notably, dismissing the misdemeanor charges “without prejudice” conceivably means that the city could get creative and somehow re-open the case, but that is seen as unlikely.
“According to the prosecutor and the judge, they really don’t come back,” Mrs. Bass told AFP, while fielding questions from sympathetic network affiliate reporters. The prosecutor reportedly had driven by her house and admitted there really was nothing to prosecute.
“You have to ask questions,” Mrs. Bass wrote on her blog, OakParkHatesVeggies.wordpress.com. “You have to have a strong internal compass for morality, and you have to be willing to stand by your self even in the face of people standing against you. The good news is that I will have healthy food for my family, and they . . . will know that it is OK to stand up for your beliefs, and that many people will come to your defense if you are just and correct. They will know that some things are worth fighting for . . .”
Her first court appearance for the garden was on June 28, and the city later tacked on misdemeanor unlicensed-dog charges that also were dismissed, concerning their two dogs. But beyond the technicalities, some observers who AFP spoke with see this garden victory as a vindication for self-sufficiency and personal sovereignty, not just against local officials who wanted the garden removed or put in the back yard, but also against the impersonal and often treacherous policies of the global administrators who want everyone eating from the same distant trough—consisting of unhealthy food usually grown from genetically modified seeds.
The entrenched world elite wants a world of huge corporate farms in the U.S. and in distant nations, where produce typically is picked unripe and shipped thousands of miles. Food shortages could become a grim reality in such an unwieldy, centralized system that is bent on profit and control. It is often said that those who control the creation of money, control society. The same could be said for food.
Conversely, if many more people borrowed a page from Mrs. Bass and others like her—the Amish come to mind—the distance from farm to dinner plate, at least for part of daily consumption, could be measured in feet.
Oakland Community College prof. Vince Lamb, speaking with Mrs. Bass and AFP at her home, met her for the first time July 26 and commented on how the Bass family is another welcome example of the family-garden and community-garden movement. This revolution in food and thought brings people together for a common goal, results in healthier food, revives broken communities, challenges corporate agriculture and staves off the possibility of food shortages—all in one big sweep.
Nearby Detroit, as Lamb noted, has been devastated by huge job losses and the resulting loss of much of its middle class.
“But check out the soup kitchens,” he said. Where houses once stood, gardens now grow in Detroit.
“The kitchens are using local veggies,” he said, “and it’s putting Detroit back on the map—pioneering the urban-garden concept.”
Local resident Ryan Turrin, whose gardening skills helped Mrs. Bass start her garden of tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, herbs, carrots, cabbage and cucumbers, shared an online video, “Your Yard is Evil,” with AFP and others on the Bass family’s front step. This humorous rant featuring John Green mocks how many people almost worship their lawns and toil daily to manicure their pointless grass, instead of doing something more productive with their land, while annually pouring 4 billion gallons of potable water onto their lawns, according to Green’s estimate.
“Oak Park—they radicalized you,” Lamb told Mrs. Bass. “They stiffened your [resolve]. I told my students about you.” He plans to have her speak at the college, where he teaches global food politics.
Noted activist Taja Sevelle, executive director of Urban Farming, is making Detroit the world’s urban-gardening epicenter.
“She could have picked anywhere in the world and she picked here,” Lamb informed AFP.
Mrs. Bass sees things more clearly now, recalling that she never gave much thought to such issues. She even informed local officials ahead of time about planting the garden, not realizing how heavy-handed local regulations could be—let alone the larger implications of being a “rebel” in a world where most people rely too heavily on the global food grid—while barely knowing where their food comes from or what it consists of.
“This experience crystallized things for me,” she said, while enjoying leisure time with her kids and giving everyone fresh-baked banana bread.
Mrs. Bass was a guest on the writer’s radio show, The AFP Hour, on the evening of July 25. Go to www.RepublicBroadcasting.org to listen to the archives.
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