Berkeley, California resident Sophie Hahn takes urban farming to the extreme. According to The Bay Citizen, her backyard boasts a massive garden where she grows all kinds of vegetables, a bounty that's big enough to meet the produce needs of six families. All that planting, tilling, and harvesting doesn't just take a time investment - it takes a fair amount of money, too.
Last summer, Hahn hoped to make up some of that cash by registering her backyard as a vegetable collective. That way, she could sell some of the produce she grows and make enough dough to keep the garden growing strong. But while getting a permit for home businesses like giving piano lessons or tutoring is relatively easy in Berkeley, establishing a vegetable garden is as difficult as growing illegal substances. ""It's actually easier in Berkeley to have a pot collective than to have a vegetable collective," Hahn told The Bay Citizen.

According to a new story in The Bay Citizen, Berkeley may be beginning to bend on its veggie-unfriendly laws. Last week, Berkeley's City Council wrote to the city planning department asking officials to change existing laws to allow urban farmers to sell their produce. Under the proposed changes, backyard gardens - or "Non-Processed Edible Home Occupations" - would be classified as a home business (the same as tutoring or giving piano lessons), making it significantly easier for folks to get operating permits.

While classifying urban farms as a home business seems like a no-brainer, Berkeley's planning department is torn on the issue because updating existing laws requires overcoming logistical hurdles. "It's a complicated question because we don't allow retail sales in residential neighborhoods right now," Dan Marks, director of Berkeley's Planning and Development Department, told The Bay Citizen. "To allow retail sales at people's homes raises questions about customers coming in and the like. It's hard to oppose  the idea of doing this. But whether this is a really important thing to do in the scheme of things we could be doing to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gases, I don't know."

Changing legislation to make it easier for these small farmers can be exceedingly difficult. Some cities would rather maintain the status quo than go through the hassle of creating loopholes for urban farmers.

Berkeley ranks as one of the most progressive, food-focused cities in all of America. If even Berkeley is considering scrapping a plan to help out backyard farmers, it's clear that the small-scale, local food movement is in a real pickle. Sign our petition asking Berkeley's Planning and Development Department to spend the time hammering out the details of a law that will allow backyard farmers to sell their produce. If Berkeley takes the lead on updating archaic legislation, other cities throughout the nation might join in the budding, urban farm movement.