Sheena and Valerie, activists with the Chickunz urban-chicken movement. Photo credit: Chickunz RVa Facebook page.
In a victory for urban chicken lovers everywhere, Richmond City Council adopted yesterday the final set of regulations that will make it permissible to own up to four hens in residential areas. In a setback for gender equality, however, the ban on roosters still applies. (See the Times-Dispatch article.)
Just kidding about the gender-equality thing. Roosters are a nuisance. Nobody wants to be woken at daybreak by a cock crowing next door. In all seriousness, lifting the ban on urban chickens marks a big step forward for the locally grown food movement, which is gaining momentum across Virginia.
There are a couple of layers to the issue worth examining. The first is the matter of individual rights. Why shouldn’t people be allowed to raise chickens in their back yards if it doesn’t pose a nuisance or health hazard to neighbors? What business is it of local government to restrict the practice? The City of Richmond will charge a $60-a-year permit to offset the cost of subjecting chicken coop owners to inspections by the Department of Animal Control and Care. That’s a reasonable concession to ensure that sanitary conditions are maintained.
The second issue is aiding and expediting the growth of the locally grown food movement. If Virginians increasingly have a taste for chicken and/or eggs that aren’t raised under the conditions of industrial agriculture, with all the hormones that are fed to the chickens and all the chicken waste that is produced, then public policy should encourage them to raise their own hens.
Furthermore, in a time of chronic economic hardship, when thousands of Virginians are short on cash and long on spare time, food self-sufficiency strikes me as a good thing. Poor people, in particular, should be coaxed into supplementing their food stamps with eggs, chicken and garden produce they raise themselves. We all know the old saying, “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.” Substitute “chicken” for “fish.” Self-sufficiency — now, that’s real social change!
— JAB
