Outrage! Pure, totally distilled, essence of outrage!

This story will raise your blood pressure, so if at risk, proceed with care. A man living in a small town in British Columbia faces six months in jail if he doesn’t cease “all agricultural activities”, i.e., gardening, on his 2.5 acre lot on the edge of town. Now that just screams of a mindless bureaucracy in action. Some stupid ordinance must say that farming within the city limits is not allowed, but gardening? And where do you draw the line between a garden and a farm? Does it have a barn? Does it have a home-made mailbox made from a plow? Does it have broken down, rusty agricultural machines lined up behind the garage? If not, it’s not a farm, at least as the Phactor knows farms. Outraged? Well, just wait. It gets even worse.
The former owner of these 2.5 acres removed all the top soil from the land and sold it. Then the sand was removed and sold, and finally the gravel beneath, lowering the landscape by nearly 4 feet, leaving nothing behind but a barren wasteland created by exploitative greed with nary a concern about the results of raping nature to make some money. The current owner restored the land well enough to allow successful gardening. See the pictures here for the before and after. Now this is what really rubs my rhubarb! It was OK by the town to totally destroy the land and leave a moon scape behind, but restore the land and plant a garden, that’s illegal. The needle on your outrage-o-meter should be bouncing off the right hand side of the scale! The mayor should be pinning a medal on the guy instead of prosecuting him for gardening.
Speaking of mindless bureaucracy, remind the Phactor to tell you a story about nature, lawns, rules and regulations, and the Army Corps of Engineers.
HT to the Garden Rant.