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PGTA Warning &
Urgent Request!
TO: PGTA Member Companies
FROM: Bob LaGasse, Executive Director
RE: Proposed Ban on Hydroponic Retailers
The City Council of Whitefish, MT, set in motion an emergency ordinance that would ban hydroponic retailers from settling in Whitefish until zoning ordinances can be discussed. The City’s major concern is the proximity of hydroponic stores to schools and libraries. The proposal is a reaction to a misconception that the sole use of hydroponics is for the production medical marijuana. The City Council will be voting on the temporary ban on MONDAY, December 7th.
Comments:
This proposed ban brands hydroponic technology and equipment as drug paraphernalia. The precedent that this ban would set in North America would be staggering and would very likely encourage other jurisdictions to do the same.
URGENT CALL TO ACTION:
PGTA has drafted a comment letter to send to the City of Whitefish for the public hearing on Monday, December 7.
EVERY member company is requested to E-MAIL a letter of your own to the City Clerk by NOON Monday, December 7, if possible, or as soon as possible, thereafter. A copy of the PGTA letter is included in this message as a basic guide. Keep in mind we want them to listen to concerned business people. Stay short and focused. A SAMPLE letter follows as an additional guideline to members.
The City Manager is Chuck Stearns, P.O. Box 158, Whitefish, MT 59937 TEL: 406.863.2400 / Send To Email: [email protected].
---------- SAMPLE LETTER -----------
The City Council
City of Whitefish
c/o Chuck Stearns, City Manager
P.O. Box 158
Whitefish, MT 59937
Ladies & Gentlemen:
As a (retail/distributor/manufacturer) member of the Progressive Gardening Trade Association, (I/we) would like to voice (my/our) strong opposition to the proposed ban and zoning ordinances limiting hydroponic retailers under consideration by the City of Whitefish.
Our industry’s customers include federal, state, and local governments, the international space program, colleges, universities, elementary and secondary school systems, commercial vegetable growers, orchid growers, herb growers, and the general public interested in producing their own healthful vegetables and flowers for personal use. It is the future of international agriculture, localized urban farming and horticulture at a time of limited natural resources and continuing volatile shifts in local climate.
As proposed, a ban or even zoning ordinances limiting hydroponic stores will adversely impact every indoor and outdoor garden center, home improvement center, retail nursery, hardware store and others who provide the public with essentially the same or similar gardening and irrigation products. We ask the City Council not to step on the slippery slope of blaming legitimate products and technologies for potential uses, perceived misuses or social issues.
The Council should not expect that limiting legitimate products for potential use is a practical or even feasible approach to solving local issues without abridging many of the freedoms we hold dearly in this nation. It would not be acceptable to limit every garden center for their products’ potential use in growing literally thousands of toxic, pharmaceutical or other plants by any of a dozen different cultivation methods, and it is equally unacceptable to do the same to hydroponic retailers.
If in any proposed ban or ordinance directed at hydroponic retailers you cannot acceptably include or substitute the words “home center”, “garden center” or “mass merchant” where the same supplies and products can be purchased, then, we strongly urge the City Council to REJECT any proposed ban and zoning ordinance on hydroponic stores.
(I/We) thank you for this opportunity to express (my/our) views on this important issue.
Sincerely,
------------- COPY OF PGTA COMMENTS --------------
The City Council
City of Whitefish
c/o Chuck Stearns, City Manager
P.O. Box 158
Whitefish, MT 59937
Ladies & Gentlemen:
The Progressive Gardening Trade Association (PGTA) writes to voice its opposition to media reports of a proposed ban and potentially discriminatory zoning ordinance directed at hydroponic retailers under consideration by the City of Whitefish.
The PGTA was founded in 1997 as the trade association for retail resellers of water-wise and organic gardening products including hydroponic systems for indoor, patio and hobby greenhouse use. Our objective is to educate the public on the advantages of water-wise and organic gardening methods in response to contemporary environmental and social issues including water conservation, pesticide and herbicide overuse, world hunger, and others.
Hydroponic technology has been a viable crop production system since the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It is simply one method of producing edible and ornamental crops among many other agricultural and horticultural methods. It is certainly NOT drug paraphernalia any more than soil-based or other growing methods. Hydroponic gardening is more water, nutrient, time and space efficient than most other methods. Such high productivity and environmentally friendly benefits should not be used to inappropriately characterize hydroponics as a single-purpose or plant-specific technology.
Hydroponic systems and methods are widely used by national space programs, colleges and universities, elementary and secondary school systems, commercial vegetable growers, orchid growers, herb growers, and the general public interested in producing their own healthful vegetables and flowers for personal use. Schools are among the industry’s best customers for use in classroom instruction of biology, horticulture, science, mathematics and agri-business.
For many years, the PGTA has sponsored a national school grant program to place hydroponic systems in classrooms, and dozens of schools have benefited from such grants each year. Hydroponic methods are the future of controlled environment agriculture, localized urban farming and horticulture at a time of limited natural resources and continuing volatile shifts in local climate.
As recently reported, a proposed ban or zoning ordinance limiting hydroponic stores will adversely impact every indoor and outdoor garden center, home improvement center, retail nursery, hardware store and others that provide the public with essentially the same or similar gardening and irrigation products. At the same time, such actions will have no impact on the issues of concern as growers will simply acquire the products they want from all the other retail establishments mentioned.
We implore the City Council not to tread on the slippery slope of blaming legitimate products and technologies for potential uses, perceived misuses or social issues. The Council should not expect that limiting legitimate products for potential use is a practical or even feasible approach to solving local concerns without opening a Pandora’s Box of issues. If it chooses to do so, then the Council will also need to extend its control to camera and electronics stores for their products’ potential use in pornography, computer stores for their products’ potential use in identity theft and credit fraud, and every garden center for their products’ potential use in growing literally thousands of toxic, pharmaceutical or other plants by any of a dozen different cultivation methods.
If in any proposed ban or ordinance directed at hydroponic retailers you cannot acceptably include or substitute the words “home center”, “garden center” or “mass merchant”, where the same or similar supplies and products can be purchased, then, we strongly urge the City Council to REJECT any proposed ban and discriminatory zoning ordinance on hydroponic stores.
On behalf of the members of the Progressive Gardening Trade Association, we thank the City Council for this opportunity to express our views, and we offer our assistance as an industry to work with the City to resolve urgent social issues in more practical ways.
Sincerely,
Robert C. LaGasse, Executive Director
Progressive Gardening Trade Association
10210 Leatherleaf Ct., Manassas, VA 20111
TEL: 703.392.5890 / Fax: 703.257.0213
Web: www.pgta.org
Urgent Request!
TO: PGTA Member Companies
FROM: Bob LaGasse, Executive Director
RE: Proposed Ban on Hydroponic Retailers
The City Council of Whitefish, MT, set in motion an emergency ordinance that would ban hydroponic retailers from settling in Whitefish until zoning ordinances can be discussed. The City’s major concern is the proximity of hydroponic stores to schools and libraries. The proposal is a reaction to a misconception that the sole use of hydroponics is for the production medical marijuana. The City Council will be voting on the temporary ban on MONDAY, December 7th.
Comments:
This proposed ban brands hydroponic technology and equipment as drug paraphernalia. The precedent that this ban would set in North America would be staggering and would very likely encourage other jurisdictions to do the same.
URGENT CALL TO ACTION:
PGTA has drafted a comment letter to send to the City of Whitefish for the public hearing on Monday, December 7.
EVERY member company is requested to E-MAIL a letter of your own to the City Clerk by NOON Monday, December 7, if possible, or as soon as possible, thereafter. A copy of the PGTA letter is included in this message as a basic guide. Keep in mind we want them to listen to concerned business people. Stay short and focused. A SAMPLE letter follows as an additional guideline to members.
The City Manager is Chuck Stearns, P.O. Box 158, Whitefish, MT 59937 TEL: 406.863.2400 / Send To Email: [email protected].
---------- SAMPLE LETTER -----------
The City Council
City of Whitefish
c/o Chuck Stearns, City Manager
P.O. Box 158
Whitefish, MT 59937
Ladies & Gentlemen:
As a (retail/distributor/manufacturer) member of the Progressive Gardening Trade Association, (I/we) would like to voice (my/our) strong opposition to the proposed ban and zoning ordinances limiting hydroponic retailers under consideration by the City of Whitefish.
Our industry’s customers include federal, state, and local governments, the international space program, colleges, universities, elementary and secondary school systems, commercial vegetable growers, orchid growers, herb growers, and the general public interested in producing their own healthful vegetables and flowers for personal use. It is the future of international agriculture, localized urban farming and horticulture at a time of limited natural resources and continuing volatile shifts in local climate.
As proposed, a ban or even zoning ordinances limiting hydroponic stores will adversely impact every indoor and outdoor garden center, home improvement center, retail nursery, hardware store and others who provide the public with essentially the same or similar gardening and irrigation products. We ask the City Council not to step on the slippery slope of blaming legitimate products and technologies for potential uses, perceived misuses or social issues.
The Council should not expect that limiting legitimate products for potential use is a practical or even feasible approach to solving local issues without abridging many of the freedoms we hold dearly in this nation. It would not be acceptable to limit every garden center for their products’ potential use in growing literally thousands of toxic, pharmaceutical or other plants by any of a dozen different cultivation methods, and it is equally unacceptable to do the same to hydroponic retailers.
If in any proposed ban or ordinance directed at hydroponic retailers you cannot acceptably include or substitute the words “home center”, “garden center” or “mass merchant” where the same supplies and products can be purchased, then, we strongly urge the City Council to REJECT any proposed ban and zoning ordinance on hydroponic stores.
(I/We) thank you for this opportunity to express (my/our) views on this important issue.
Sincerely,
------------- COPY OF PGTA COMMENTS --------------
The City Council
City of Whitefish
c/o Chuck Stearns, City Manager
P.O. Box 158
Whitefish, MT 59937
Ladies & Gentlemen:
The Progressive Gardening Trade Association (PGTA) writes to voice its opposition to media reports of a proposed ban and potentially discriminatory zoning ordinance directed at hydroponic retailers under consideration by the City of Whitefish.
The PGTA was founded in 1997 as the trade association for retail resellers of water-wise and organic gardening products including hydroponic systems for indoor, patio and hobby greenhouse use. Our objective is to educate the public on the advantages of water-wise and organic gardening methods in response to contemporary environmental and social issues including water conservation, pesticide and herbicide overuse, world hunger, and others.
Hydroponic technology has been a viable crop production system since the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It is simply one method of producing edible and ornamental crops among many other agricultural and horticultural methods. It is certainly NOT drug paraphernalia any more than soil-based or other growing methods. Hydroponic gardening is more water, nutrient, time and space efficient than most other methods. Such high productivity and environmentally friendly benefits should not be used to inappropriately characterize hydroponics as a single-purpose or plant-specific technology.
Hydroponic systems and methods are widely used by national space programs, colleges and universities, elementary and secondary school systems, commercial vegetable growers, orchid growers, herb growers, and the general public interested in producing their own healthful vegetables and flowers for personal use. Schools are among the industry’s best customers for use in classroom instruction of biology, horticulture, science, mathematics and agri-business.
For many years, the PGTA has sponsored a national school grant program to place hydroponic systems in classrooms, and dozens of schools have benefited from such grants each year. Hydroponic methods are the future of controlled environment agriculture, localized urban farming and horticulture at a time of limited natural resources and continuing volatile shifts in local climate.
As recently reported, a proposed ban or zoning ordinance limiting hydroponic stores will adversely impact every indoor and outdoor garden center, home improvement center, retail nursery, hardware store and others that provide the public with essentially the same or similar gardening and irrigation products. At the same time, such actions will have no impact on the issues of concern as growers will simply acquire the products they want from all the other retail establishments mentioned.
We implore the City Council not to tread on the slippery slope of blaming legitimate products and technologies for potential uses, perceived misuses or social issues. The Council should not expect that limiting legitimate products for potential use is a practical or even feasible approach to solving local concerns without opening a Pandora’s Box of issues. If it chooses to do so, then the Council will also need to extend its control to camera and electronics stores for their products’ potential use in pornography, computer stores for their products’ potential use in identity theft and credit fraud, and every garden center for their products’ potential use in growing literally thousands of toxic, pharmaceutical or other plants by any of a dozen different cultivation methods.
If in any proposed ban or ordinance directed at hydroponic retailers you cannot acceptably include or substitute the words “home center”, “garden center” or “mass merchant”, where the same or similar supplies and products can be purchased, then, we strongly urge the City Council to REJECT any proposed ban and discriminatory zoning ordinance on hydroponic stores.
On behalf of the members of the Progressive Gardening Trade Association, we thank the City Council for this opportunity to express our views, and we offer our assistance as an industry to work with the City to resolve urgent social issues in more practical ways.
Sincerely,
Robert C. LaGasse, Executive Director
Progressive Gardening Trade Association
10210 Leatherleaf Ct., Manassas, VA 20111
TEL: 703.392.5890 / Fax: 703.257.0213
Web: www.pgta.org
