{"id":796561,"date":"2026-08-01T02:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/796561\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T02:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T02:21:09","slug":"jacksonville-residents-push-for-free-to-garden-act-amid-parasite-outbreak-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/796561\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville residents push for \u2018Free to Garden Act\u2019 amid parasite outbreak concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Several Jacksonville residents went before City Council on Tuesday to push for legislation that would make it easier for people to grow and share food from their own yards \u2014 and at least one speaker tied the push to a recent local parasite outbreak<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No bill is currently before the council, but residents used public comment to call for what they\u2019re calling the \u201cFree to Garden Act\u201d \u2014 a proposed measure that would allow people to grow food in their yards and share, exchange, and distribute it without local government or zoning restrictions.<\/p>\n

Residents cite food access, neighborhood health<\/p>\n

Roxy McCloud, who was identified as representing Common Ground Garden, urged council members to get behind the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to support that act to garden,\u201d McCloud said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just for food and stability \u2014 it grows neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curtis White echoed that sentiment, pointing to the broader community benefits of garden access.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen how community gardens promote public health and strengthen neighborhoods, create educational opportunities for youth, and increase access to free and healthy food,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

Parasite outbreak adds urgency to the debate<\/p>\n

Resident James Weston connected the push to a recent cyclospora outbreak that has drawn public attention to food sourcing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have been following the recent news about the parasite outbreak causing explosive diarrhea, you\u2019ve probably been paying a little extra attention to where your food comes from \u2014 I know I have,\u201d Weston said.<\/p>\n

Weston also called for turning unused land into productive community space.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeighbors are ready to turn vacant lots into places that would feed people instead of sitting unused,\u201d he said. \u201cGrowing food shouldn\u2019t mean fighting red tape for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the Free to Garden Act would do<\/p>\n

The Free to Garden Act would allow residents to grow food on their residential property and share, exchange, or distribute it free from local government or zoning restrictions.<\/p>\n

The proposed community initiative would build on a 2019 state law that already prohibits local governments from banning gardens on residential property.<\/p>\n

As of this week, city council had not considered any version of the legislation.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Several Jacksonville residents went before City Council on Tuesday to push for legislation that would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":796562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,97,14310,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-796561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-health","tag-jacksonville","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}