Joining the progressive movement of environmental stewards who are zealously embracing and actively stepping more fully into the concept of sustainable living, Jennifer and Jason Helvenston, Orlando, Florida, set an impressive goal of producing 75% of the food they consume on the property they own and live on. And what a bountiful and lush edible oasis they have cultivated with their own two hands, a 25×25 foot vegetable garden in their front yard, brimming with succulent tomatoes, mouthwatering leafy greens, and a wide variety of other colorful and nutrient-dense produce. Their garden has grown to be so plentiful and robust that they generously share it with neighbors and friends, educating passers-by with gardening techniques and sharing the gift of their wisdom and experience freely.
Sounds wonderful, right?
Not to everyone, unfortunately.
This health-boosting, life-sustaining, crafted-with-love patch of vegetation, affectionately named the “Patriot Garden” by the Helvenstons, is on the chopping block by the City of Orlando officials for not being in compliance with the City’s code. Fines of up to $500 a day will begin to accrue if the young couple does not uproot their garden and replace it with code-appropriate traditional grass.
But these forward-thinking, earth-friendly homeowners are not going down without a fight. “The greatest freedom you can give someone is the freedom to know they will not go hungry,” said Jason Helvenston. “Our Patriot Garden pays for all of its costs in healthy food and lifestyle while having the lowest possible carbon footprint. It supplies valuable food while being attractive. I really do not understand why there is even a discussion. They will take our house before they take our Patriot Garden.”
It is alarming to me that in a day and age where the natural resources on our planet are being pilfered, the food we consume is laden with chemicals and preservatives, and, perhaps most unimaginable of all, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people in our world who die every day because they do not have a morsel of food to put in their mouth, that we would consider placing more importance on maintaining outdated zoning codes or landscape uniformity/conformity than we do to the welfare of our planet and the well-being of all our brothers and sisters.
We, as a society, are ignoring and destroying one of our most important relationships of all: Our relationship with Mother Earth.
At what point in time did it become more important to have a perfectly manicured lawn than to contribute to the vitality and sustainability of life as we know it? What levels of indifference and negligence and abuse will we allow ourselves to sink to before the results of which will ultimately cause us to agree at least on some basic level that we have got some real work to do and some significant changes to make, both individually and collectively, locally and globally, if we want to continue to rely on our planet to support and sustain us in the way we have come to expect it to?
With the legal muscle of the Institute for Justice Florida Chapter backing them, Jason and Jennifer Helvenston are launching “Plant a Seed, Change the Law,” a protest of Orlando’s law, which they say violates their constitutional right to peacefully use their property to grow their own food.
And they just may be putting a dent in some of the City’s antiquated laws as some Orlando planners have proposed changes to the code. Upon entering office several years ago, the city mayor himself, Buddy Dyer, launched Green Works Orlando with the goal of becoming one of most environmentally friendly cities in the country and established four community vegetable gardens around the city. But City officials admit the code has fallen behind the rebirth of urban gardening.
To see a photo of the Helvenston’s front-yard garden and to follow their Patriot Garden blog, click here. If you would like to support the Helvenstons and their ability to continue to grow their own food, you can sign their petition to the City of Orlando here on the Change.org website.
After all, this movement is not solely about supporting Jennifer and Jason’s rights to grow and consume their own produce; this is much, much bigger. We are at a critical juncture at this time on our earth where we all are faced with a choice, an opportunity to decide what is truly important, what truly matters. And as a natural outgrowth of that choice, if we desire to ensure that our world will continue to be an abundant and peaceful place for us and our children and their children and their children and their children to live and grow and thrive upon, we will do as the Helvenstons did – boldly declare that decision, stand up to the stagnant and rigid beliefs held within the pages of the Old Cultural Story, and “get our hands dirty” by beginning to co-create the kind of world that we all desire and the kind of world which God intended for us to have.
(Lisa McCormack is the Managing Editor & Administrator of The Global Conversation. She is also a member of the Spiritual Helper team atwww.ChangingChange.net, a website offering emotional and spiritual support. To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com)