Justin Auciello: The New Wave Planner

Backyard chicken coops? Urban farming? There’s a silver lining to the recession.

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Don’t be alarmed if you start noticing a sudden influx of “victory gardens” or new feathered residents in your urban neighborhood. It’s all just a great consequence of the current economic downturn.

Even prior to the near economic apocalypse last fall, Americans were already in the process of going green, rallying around practices like eating organically and locally produced food, purchasing environmentally friendly products, and even composing.

Is this the resurgence of the hippie?

Perhaps, according to New York Magazine, in which a June 21, 2009 feature, cleverly entitled “Back to the Garden,” is framed by this statement:

The hippies at Woodstock seem anachronistic, but look around. More and more city dwellers today are scrutinizing their food sources, buying eco-products, and composting their leftovers—they just wash their hair a little more often.

And why not?

While some may criticize the green movement as mere marketing, the benefits are clear, notwithstanding the incorrect perception that environmentally friendly living is expensive living.

I’ve always viewed the green movement as “going back to the basics,” meaning that not only will doing so benefit my health, but also the costs are not prohibitive. I hesitate to call my living practices acts of pure frugality, but my lifestyle actually results in spending less, since I mostly eat the food that is found along the perimeter of supermarkets and tend to ignore unhealthy options and unnecessary non-food products.

So, with people struggling across the county, the green movement may be acquiring new followers out of necessity, and those same people are looking to eat the staples that are found along the supermarket perimeter, or perhaps food right in their backyard. As promoted by First Lady Michelle Obama earlier this year, victory gardens are popping up everywhere (including in my backyard), but people are going much further.

Urban neighborhood and rooftop gardens, while somewhat recent trends as a reaction to needing some semblance of rural life in the city, as well as the virtuosity of providing healthy produce within the inner city where poorer residents may not have sufficient access to supermarkets, are now commonly known in the city vernacular.

But backyard chicken coops? They are certainly not ubiquitous city practices, but maybe they should be. In this recession, new rules are being generated everyday, so why not create some at the simplest level?

According to a June 15, 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times, backyard chicken rearing has been generating buzz throughout the county, in places like Madison, Wisconsin, Iowa City, Iowa, and even Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Baltimore, as people are searching for innovative ways to cut costs.

In Madison, the article states, “eight families in a three-block radius [of the article’s subjects that live in the heart of the city] and an estimated 150 families citywide [raise chickens].” And, according to the article, a well-known chicken supplier is getting slammed with orders:

Chick hatcheries say they can’t keep up with urban orders. Murray McMurray Hatchery, the world’s largest supplier of rare-breed chicks, has sold out of its “Meat and Egg Combo” collection of meat birds and laying hens. Customers hungry for a standard hen must wait: There’s a six-week backlog on orders.

Not only do the chickens serve an obvious public welfare purpose, from the sociological standpoint, they’re also helping to change the image of city life.

Take the existing urban gardens, mix in backyard chicken coops and some composting, and also add the farmer’s markets that are appearing with more frequency, and paradoxically, a city is not longer as wild as it once was. One can escape the hectic city life and reconnect back to nature in his/her backyard. In some instances, however, the “simpler times” argument doesn’t fly as easily.

Certainly, any type of livestock raising in a residential area requires reasonable zoning and health controls, protecting the integrity of neighborhoods and well-being of its residents, respectively. Common issues that must be considered include controlling wafting smells, ensuring proper sanitation, and regulating the design and placement of coops, in order to assuage fears of property devaluation in the neighborhood.

In Madison, WI, for example, households are permitted up to four hens, and a 25 foot separation is required between coops and neighbor’s homes. Reasonable.

Elsewhere, however, the slippery slope game is in full-force.

In New Haven, Connecticut, a recently proposed law permitting up to six hens per dwelling unit has drawn the ire of the community, with residents expressing fears of unsanitary conditions, avian flu, and the potential for more exotic forms of city farming should chicken roosts become legalized. Unreasonable.

In June, the Board of Aldermen’s Legislation Committee held a hearing on the matter—with testimony on the issue clocking in at a feather numbing three hours—with statements from residents, experts in the sustainability, public health, and medicine fields, and city planning officials.

The concerns ran the gamut, from fears of salmonella infection to just plain dirtiness associated with chicken rearing, and the proponents, backed by testimony from an immunologist, opined that the birds are good neighbors, as they eat bugs, will not spread avian flu, and promote a culture sustainability.

Due to open questions and outstanding debate regarding whether or not building permits should be required for chicken coops (since they’re not permitted now, residents must request a zoning variance), the Legislation Committee tabled the matter until this month.

The bottom line is that while many of the concerns are unfounded and backyard agriculture should be encouraged, to ensure equity throughout the remainder of the community, it should be regulated in a sensible fashion, just like in Madison, Wisconsin.

Let’s avoid the slippery slope arguments, allow our residents (many of whom are not as financially secure as they were just last year) to produce food in their backyards, and view it as a silver lining of this recession.

Is it the resurgence of the hippie? Woodstock Nation 2.0?

Maybe.

If it’s creating a more environmentally conscious culture, then why not?

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Sources:

Honeyman, Leonard J. “Feathers Fly; Chickens Still Caged” New Haven Independent 9 June 2009.

Huffstutter, P.J. “Backyard chickens on the rise, despite neighbors’ clucks” The Los Angeles Times 15 June 2009.

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