Can you believe that this seven-year-old food forest was destroyed, all over a permit!
“Imagine working for seven years to build a community food forest. It would be a very fulfilling project to take a neighborhood and transform it into a living food source full of fruit trees, luscious vines, and edible ground cover. And imagine all your hard work being torn away in an instant by the city council. Literally torn away; what would you be thinking and feeling as they sent landscaping crews to tear out the trees, some with fruit still on them, and grind them into wood chips. Unfortunately, what could only be a feeling of utter exasperation and crushing disbelief was forced upon residents of Sunshine Coast, Australia. The people of a section of the city banded together to transform 11 city blocks into a food forest of which at least 200 people enjoyed the fruits.”
What a terrible loss for that community. The author of this article makes a wonderful argument in favor of planting food forests. He continues to say, “People spend a lot of time, effort, and money landscaping their yard with pretty, but useless plants. Planting a food forest is a great investment, as it provides nontaxable income (fruit). It is also a hedge against uncertain economic conditions–worst case scenario, you will have something to eat.”
You can read the full story HERE. Get out there are start your own food forest today!
2 comments
Doesn’t surprise me. My son just moved into a neighborhood and a Thai lady down the street had all kinds of Papaya and cool stuff growing in her front yard. To me, it looked wonderful and useful, I guess the neighbors hated it. The HOA made her tear it out just last week. My son said she was sodding it over yesterday. Sad.
That is insane – very sorry to hear it.