A Small Farm in Iowa Fights Regulators and Lives to See Another Day: New at Reason

Earlier this week, members of the Polk County, Iowa, Board of Adjustments decided not to force the lone for-profit farm in Des Moines, the county’s largest city, out of business.

While that sounds like the county played nice, the truth is that the small, beloved farm, Dogpatch Urban Gardens, faced this grave crisis for no legitimate reason whatsoever.

Farmers Jenny and Eric Quiners say they’re happy with the outcome of this week’s board meeting. But uncertainty over the future of their business has proven costly. The couple has spent about $10,000 so far, and anticipates even after the board’s decision this week that their that the costs will rise.

“The added costs due to our county regulations have put some of our new business ideas on hold as we had to shift our focus to regulatory compliance rather than enhancing our business endeavors,” Jenny Quiner told Reason‘s Baylen Linnekin.

But it’s not just the money,”Aside from the financial aspect, this past year has been very stressful,” she says. “There were a lot of unknowns with the business and it seemed like every time we had a conversation with our county we had to spend thousands of more dollars to stay in compliance with their regulations.”

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