Wisconsin 2nd District Assemblyman Shae Sortwell of Two Rivers wants to make sure people have the right to grow their own food.
He and State Senator Andre Jaque of De Pere have created a bill that makes it so anyone can garden without getting in trouble, but still allows municipalities to make laws about it.
“It established the starting point that someone has the right to garden,” he explained. “And then it leaves it open-ended for a municipality to be able to say okay, it has to be well kept, you got to be weeding it.”
Sortwell says the law is open-ended so cities like Two Rivers can make laws about the gardens.
“For instance, in Two Rivers in their front yard garden program, they require such things as your garden has to be in raised garden beds if they are in the front yard,” he describes. “Or it’s got to be potted and things like that.”
The last action in the Wisconsin State Legislature had a public hearing on the bill back in September but it hasn’t made it out of committee yet.
