Food Trucks vs. The Establishment: Attorney Jeffrey Dermer on the Legalities of Mobile Vending

"If freedom can't win over something so innocuous and where the benefits are so wide, then you can't win at all," says Jeffrey Dermer, a lawyer and founder of the Southern California Mobile Food Vendor's Association, a group devoted to protecting the legal rights of food truck operators.

Food trucks made news in California when a state assemblyman pushed forward a law that would've banned vendors from operating within 1,500 feet of a school. Popular backlash killed that ban, but other cities around the state are still trying to clamp down on food trucks.

Dermer talked with Reason.tv about SCMFVA's suit against the city of Monrovia, which has enacted a de facto food truck ban, as well as the broader state of the food truck industry, which is often attacked by interest groups representing traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants, which claim that food trucks are unfair competitors.

"I don't think there's anything unfair about it. The problem is, your food isn't good enough," says Dermer.

Run time about 4 minutes.

Interview by Zach Weissmueller. Shot by Christopher Sharif Matar. Edited by Weissmueller.

Visit http://reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube Channel to receive automatic updates when new material goes live.

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[beigelycheenut]

I remember at my first job every morning in the bakery where I worked, we'd give all of our bread that had an expiry date for that day to a local charity. A woman who'd been working there for over ten years told me the deli would donate hundreds of dollars worth of food every day too; food that had an expiration date for the next day, but we weren't allowed to donate it anymore because of law makers. We'd just chuck it. Great, so now the homeless can just starve because of "equality."

[Tabris Esfahani]

I'm an analyst and work in downtown chicago; thanks to my hours sometimes these trucks are the only reason I manage to have enough time to have lunch because they're parked downtown nearby. I love em, and now that I've seen this they can expect more of my business

[demetri kavoukas]

let the fucking people decide . gov get the fuck out of peoples business .

[Jak Heart]

I like food trucks when they are good and more importantly respectful, they need to know their place and parked on a narrow ass street with heavy traffic in front of some other resturants parking area isn't the place. So quit smelling your own shit as roses and do something usefull with yourself.

[Jak Heart]

You are a liberal fairy fuck. I live in the Monrovia area and oldtown is not big enough for one truck let alone five or ten etc... There is no parking as it is even on side streets so your bullshit causes problems for people who NEED to get to where they are going.

[DiscoFishTaco]

As a food truck owner (5 years in business), I appreciate what you are doing. Start a union. I will head up the TN chapter. Keep up the good fight.

[sahra darya]

HAHA! thanks. howevarr I use teh liive Televsion App (it s priceless) From liveTVapp:dot:org =D

[Niggbo]

Oh gary johnson the new mexico governer. That guy does have balls for being a republican wanting to legalize weed.

[Niggbo]

I don't know who the hell that is but I can agree with you liberals and neocons use the same type of dirty shit. You sounded like a social Conservative that endorsed mit when you went off on liberals.

[yojimbo81]

Where did I endorse Romney in my comment? Liberals use kids as excuses for their dumb laws as well. It's not exclusive to neoconservatives.

GARY JOHNSON 2012!

[Niggbo]

If we let mit win, drugs will stay illegal, social laws like ban on gay marriage and prostitution will continue to be illegal. Social Conservative want to control what you can put in your body because of the kidz baby think of the kidz baby. Look you put the blame on liberals for controlling people lives that fine but don't forget about the religious nut bags that wnat to do the same for the sake of the kids. i am sick of the "kids" being used as a scape goat for every dumb law.

[Niggbo]

i bet they still pay income tax.