I Applaud These Locavores’ Efforts
If you believe in the value of local food, this is the way to go. An Affton couple turned their suburban property into a farm, complete with crops, rabbits, chickens, and beehives. They harvest their own vegetables and slaughter their own livestock.
They aren’t asking for subsidies for their enterprise, and they don’t insist on free public land. They aren’t lobbying the state to impose their preferences on anyone else, either. While they would like more people to agree with them, they go about convincing people without coercion. They show their neighbors the benefits of their lifestyle — no local food mandates or preferential policies are involved.
Anyone who lives in an area that allows chickens can try this approach.
I serve on an urban food policy committee that looks at issues around the locovore movement. As it turns out, many of the activities you described are in violation of the city’s decades old codes. In order to accomodate urban and suburban farming, the city must get involved to update its codes.
In another instance, there is a city-financed program to provide tilling services for people who would like to have their own urban garden, but don’t own or can’t operate a tiller. This program doesn’t cost much but it allows hundreds of people to have a garden that wouldn’t otherwise be able to. So, you see, the government isn’t this big bad evil monster that you make it out to be.
Comment by Anne McGregor — March 17, 2010 @ 11:33 a.m.
Thanks for your comment. I agree that when city codes prohibit urban farming on private land, those policies should be revised. But I would prefer that the people who need tillers call a landscaping service and not the taxpayers.
Comment by Sarah Brodsky — March 17, 2010 @ 11:46 a.m.