Join the Pumpkin Revolt

Bureaucrats in Orem, Utah, are trying to destroy 71-year-old Darrell "Bud" Durrant's livelihood.  Durrant lives off of a $396 retirement.  The bulk of his income comes from pumpkins that he grows on his farm in Lake Shore, and sells from his yard at 112 W. 1600 N. in Orem, a distance of 17 miles.

He's been selling pumpkins from his yard for 20 years.  But this year, authorities threatened to shut him down.

Bud Durrant and his business partner, David Cook.

Durrant appealed to the city, and so they will "allow him to sell through this year."

City Attorney Paul Johnson said, "It's too bad the city hasn't enforced the law before now."

The city hopes to have a decision by the end of 2011, on whether or not he can sell next year.

It seems to me, that shutting down small farmers during a recession is just plain stupid.  It's a cold, impersonal cruelty, that someone would destroy an old farmer's livelihood simply to enforce a nonsensical law.

But it doesn't stop there.  City manager Bruce Chesnut said they are going to be looking into whether they should permit "everything from yard sales to lemonade stands."

There is a growing trend in governments shutting down small entrepreneurs. 

Police in Iowa and Georgia shut down children's lemonade stands for not having "a business license, a peddler’s permit, and a food permit to operate the stand, which cost $50 per day or $180 per year each."  The only way lemonade stands could afford those permits is if they started mixing crack-cocaine into the juice.

Small raw milk producers have been raided, shut down, fined, and jailed all over the country.  The Amish, especially, have been targeted.

But there's hope.  We can fight back.  

Orem's mayor Jerry Washburn (above) greets local farmers.
(picture edited by Double Birds)

A woman in Michigan faced jail time for growing a garden in her front yard.  The story became an internet sensation, and the local authorities backed down.

Let's do the same for Darrell "Bud" Durrant.  Let's help him fight back.  Here's how:

1. Share this story with people you know.
2. Email the Orem City Mayor and Council Members.  (Click here to use the petition I wrote).
3. Buy your Halloween pumpkins this year from Bud, from his house at 112 W. 1600 N., Orem.

Special thanks to the Daily Herald for bringing this story to light.

Further Reading:

Jefferson on free trade and the right to sell.

Yard sales are technically illegal.

MisesWiki on Intervention.

Raw Milk Prohibition