Poultry's Promise

September 11, 2009 (9/20/09, Stamford Times)


The welcome piece in the August 23 edition of the Stamford Times, "A Home to Roost: Resident Leads Push to Keep Backyard Poultry" (page 3) enumerates advantages to this trend that only begin to, well, scratch the surface.

Besides the appeal of unusual and personable pets, or even the convenience of fresh eggs, backyard poultry could serve as the backbone to the comeback of literal home economics in Stamford--as economics originally addressed the management of finances and resources in the household.

Combined with World War II-style Victory gardens and a city-wide implementation of community gardens, before too long, raising chickens and other birds might be vital to local sustenance, while stimulating a sense of community solidarity more valuable than the transitory associations formed around society's current consumeristic preoccupations.

Many may still be reeling from the sub-prime mortgage debacle and the extractive consequences of the bank 'bailouts', but economists warn that we still have to wait out the impact of the credit and derivatives bubbles. While they are considering the prospects of hyperinflation, any efforts to reassert local control of agriculture would be vital, if the prices for food and other essentials skyrocketed overnight, in the manner of Weimar Germany.

In addition to their usefulness as both food and pest controllers, natural gardening pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka (author of One-Straw Revolution) prizes chickens for the value of their droppings as fertilizer. Marrying this to a renewed emphasis on home canning and other traditional food-preserving practices can help gradually wean us off dependency on big box supermarket chains.

Despite the fecundity of their offerings, the year-round accessibility of fruits and vegetables they provide comes at a precarious toll in fuel-intensive transport from remote places, as well as in reduced nutritional integrity and safety, due to harmful inputs from agribusiness.

Recent food safety legislation, like H.R. 759: Food And Drug Administration Globalization Act, the Rosa DeLauro (D-CT)-sponsored H.R. 875: Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 and the pending S. 510: FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, among others, emphasize quick fixes for food-borne safety issues, increasing the application of hormones and toxic pesticides, while doing nothing to address the underlying problems of factory farming, such as lack of basic sanitation and poor government inspection practices.

Penned to the benefit of Monsanto and other industrial food giants, collectively, such legislation's regulations and penalties are so extreme, they could threaten the future of independent farms, local farmers' markets and even organic food co-ops.

With the weight of massive national debt, the threat of more wars on the horizon by the new administration and the unrelenting promise of a serious flu epidemic, establishing local food autonomy is an indispensable tool to adapting to our turbulent times.

Rolf Maurer
Green Party Mayoral Candidate