The Sustainable Economies Law Center partnered with the Social Justice Learning Institute, Slow Food California and Ubuntu Green to pass AB 2561, the California Neighborhood Food Act in 2014. This law is supported by many other organizations and enterprises as well.
Click here for a more detailed FAQ about your new rights under this law.
If you sign the petition below, we can keep you updated on SELC's current urban agriculture advocacy that builds on our success with the Neighborhood Food Act and furthers our right to grow and sell food in our communities.
The California Neighborhood Food Act, signed into law in 2014, removes barriers to growing food for personal consumption. The law provides rights to grow food in certain circumstances. As a signatory to this petition, you can show your support for urban agriculture as a strategy to increase access to fresh food, promote food security for vulnerable Californians, and reduce environmental impacts of water-intensive lawns. We'll keep you updated on our other work to promote urban agriculture. Below are descriptions of the key provisions of the law:
Tenants' rights:
The law requires that tenants of single family homes and duplexes have the right to grow produce in their backyard in portable containers as long as it does not create trip-and-fall risks or other hazards. It allows the landlord to place restrictions on the location and number of containers.
Homeowners' Association member rights:
The law makes it illegal for a homeowners’ association contract to prohibit or unreasonably restrict the use of backyards of private (not shared) property for growing produce.
Click here for a more detailed FAQ about your new rights under this law.
Click here to download model Neighborhood Food Act legislation (note: this is NOT what was actually signed into law in California).
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