©2012, Randall Prue
Now 21 years in the making!

If you do not know the tale, it is here on the Home page. Now 21 years after my conviction for making compost on “protected” farm land, in a town that proudly proclaimed itself to be defenders of the environment, I am sitting in Paradise where anything that will grow here (in zone 5) does extremely well, 3 acres of private gardens and orchards on an expanding layer of rich, dark soil. Dead leaves made that rich soil. The gardens are surrounded and protected by trees (mixed hardwood and softwood). My garden often does not freeze during the first (in autumn) or last (in spring) cold nights (when the rest of the town’s gardens freeze).
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On November 3, 1991, Renée Legendre was elected on an environmental platform. It is now February 28, 1992. Renée and her team are also stonewalling me. Despite repeated and frequent communications demanding a response, I have not had a single word in reply. I am still being threatened with seizure by bailiff and/or imprisonment. What I would like you to do is phone, fax, or write the mayor of Carignan, and tell her what you think.
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Farmers around the world are fed-up about problems like these and some far more serious ones. Without farmers, no one will be fed—up or down.
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Quebec passed unique and stringent agricultural protection laws circa 1978 forbidding the use of farm land for other purposes. You can’t even build a house on “green” land, unless you’re farming it. People have been ordered to demolish houses built without permission.
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Herban sprawl is my solution to several of today’s problems, and it’s what I do here. I have expanded my research into the evolution of plants, something that I have done actively for 20 years, and which has interested me since I was a child. Luther Burbank evolved plant species genetically; I believe that it is now time for us to evolve plant species culturally. This research is not sterile laboratory stuff. I grow what I choose and eat much of it. I propagate and preserve some heritage seed, and introduced a new edible hybrid to Canada which was previously available only in the U.S. Herbalists and naturopaths have asked me to provide them with the plants they require for their healing work, which I have done.
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Firstly, this is not fiction. The irony and ludicrous nature of these events called for satire, and satire responded. The mayor had six weeks to change the inspector’s mind and drop the charges, and all media coverage was stayed until the day after the trial, at which point camera crews began arriving at the town hall.

It is evident that the people running this town do not understand why anyone would be so interested in dead leaves, although Mayor Perreault did admit that “some of his best friends” make compost
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or
12 days in jail for making compost
©1991-2012, Randall Prue

Six years in the making. Later additions/updates are dated.

Officials of Carignan, Quebec acted swiftly to put an end to a suspected organized compost ring within its territory. In the absence of a law that specifically prohibits the dangerous substance, officials were obliged to resort to an arcane, little-used by-law which prohibits the storage of dead leaves. Suspected of being an important figure in an international composting conspiracy, Randall Prue was convicted September 25, 1991 in Chambly Municipal Court of illegal storage of dead leaves. Prue’s connections to compost go back three decades and it’s no secret that during this time he has made tons of the stuff, encouraging others to do the same. Considered a compost expert, he is often seen demonstrating how to make the stuff to hundreds of people at a time.

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