Chicken controversy Food for thought

Posted 8/21/12

With more Americans changing their conceptions about eating healthier food and living more sustainable lifestyles, it’s time for local officials to take these matters into consideration, too. The …

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Chicken controversy Food for thought

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With more Americans changing their conceptions about eating healthier food and living more sustainable lifestyles, it’s time for local officials to take these matters into consideration, too. The trend to eat food that is grown close to where you live is not going away any time soon—whether that’s buying from local farmers or growing, raising, or producing some of one’s own food. Likewise the movement to live more sustainably on this earth is here to stay, and one central idea includes enabling individuals to become more self-reliant and be able to produce more of what one needs for him/herself, his/her family. For many who are turning to more sustainable lifestyles, change often begins by starting a vegetable garden or raising backyard chickens.

Enter the Village of Liberty, which is embroiled in a debate over whether its inhabitants may keep chickens. It all started when the village code enforcement officer sent a notification of violation to the family of 13-year-old Joseph Galli Jr., a boy with special needs, indicating that he could not keep backyard chickens under village law—a law that had not been enforced in recent memory. The Gallis then turned to the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals for relief, but the board ruled in favor of the code enforcement officer’s upholding the chicken ban. This decision, in turn, drew a large number of residents on both sides of the chicken flap to a municipal government meeting in October, where many (but not all) spoke in favor of allowing backyard chickens. The village trustees indicated that they had heard everyone’s opinion, and they are now in the process of researching the matter to see what other communities do, before making any decision about rewriting the law. (Meantime, the code enforcement officer reportedly has put the prosecution of chicken violations on hold.)

Around the country, one can find similar stories not only about municipalities banning urban and suburban chickens, but also sometimes banning home gardens. In 2011, a Detroit woman faced 90 days in jail for planting a vegetable garden in her front yard.

So, what is a municipality to do in the face of two conflicting freedoms? One is the freedom to use one’s private property to meet one’s own needs, whether this be planting a vegetable garden or raising chickens to produce eggs for the breakfast table, for example. The other is the freedom of neighbors to live without practices they deem to be a nuisance—noise, odor, aesthetically unattractive conditions, etc.—the kinds of problems commonly addressed by zoning rules.

We believe that among the many good reasons to allow the raising of backyard chickens is the possibility of uncertain economic times that may well lie ahead. Hard times happen—to individuals, to communities, to entire countries—and so as times change, it is best to be ready. In fact, for a significant number of Americans, hard times are already here; in 2013, 14% of households (17.5 million households) were food insecure (www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/hunger-and-poverty/hunger-and-poverty-fact-sheet.html). For these and other Americans, raising backyard chickens or planting gardens (yes, even in the front yard) is not a harm to be avoided but a step toward increased self-sufficiency, sustainability and transition to a more secure future. If done right, these practices can also create stronger communities while having a positive practical effect, as did, for example, the 20 million Victory Gardens that produced more than 40% of the fresh vegetables grown in the U.S. in 1943 (www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-worldwar/5883) during World War II when such gardens were seen as an expression of patriotism.

We believe that the ability to grow one’s own food is a fundamental right, and that it need not be at odds with the power of municipalities to draft reasonable rules to regulate these activities in order to minimize nuisance complaints, keep the local peace and reduce negative impact on property values. Outright bans, however, we believe to be anachronistic. Urban homesteading, small-scale agriculture, home gardens, and, yes, raising backyard chickens are to be supported and encouraged by thoughtful communities and municipal governments, rather than to be banned.

This past July, The New York Times ran an article titled: “New York City Backyards Welcome Chickens and Bees” (www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/realestate/new-york-city-backyards-welcome-chickens-and-bees.html). In 2013, NYC had just 22 complaints about chickens and 11 complaints about beehives vs. 1,012 complaints about dogs. If a metropolis of eight million people can figure out how to accommodate chickens (hens are OK, roosters are illegal), surely the Village of Liberty can, too.

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