The Great Outdoor Food Fight: Making Fruit Stands Legal in California

Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Thanks to restrictive laws, many outdoor fruit vendors find themselves at odds with law enforcement. For the “crime” of selling fruit on the street, they face the potential of being hit with hefty fines and even arrests.

Street vending has a long, proud tradition in this country and across the world. Many California outdoor fruit vendors are Mexican immigrants or the descendants of immigrants and have brought with them a history of selling food and wares to happy passersby.

The fact that many fruit vendors are Hispanic has added another layer of bitterness to the conflict over whether or not outdoor fruit vending should be legal. To many in the community, police crackdowns on vendors aren’t just about preventing them from doing business; they are seen as targeted attacks on a minority community.

Law enforcement officials vehemently deny this charge, but the perception that the targeting of fruit vendors is motivated as much by race as it is by health or licensing concerns adds even more incentive to find a way to relieve the situation.