The Urban Permaculture Farm Magazine

As I'm writing this article, Oprah Winfrey is having a discussion on her program, regarding the label "free range" and where your food comes from. Chickens among other farm animals are in the main stream media frequently these days. Knowing where your food comes from is key to modern health and animal well being.

It's important, in my thinking, to understand how the chicken has made almost universal contributions to human well being, throughout history and nearly every culture of the world. They are in our language, consider how often a term, relevant to chickens, is used in everyday speech. Like it or not, the chicken is apart of us.

In this country (the United States), there has been a profound rise and fall, in poultry management and related poultry/egg health and nutrition through the years. Like anything else, when money drives the machine, surpassing all else, something will suffer in the end.

Though I will focus on chickens in this and articles to come, the underlying theme is, locally managed smaller flocks are as always, healthier, happier and more sensible regarding animal and human well being. Around the turn of the century (1900) somewhere around 40% of American families, or more, had backyard farm operations on a large or small scale. The casual observer knows, that rural America is dotted with one decaying farm after another, no longer worked. Large scale industry and importation have taken the place of the local family farm.

Patti Moreno and others have it right, use everything you have available and reduce waste. Urban "Sustainable" Living, has a place for the domestic chicken (gallus domesticus) and it's relatives. It would be naïve to assume that everyone could be sustained by moving to the country and returning to the traditional family farm. However, what can be done, is bring manageable portions of agriculture to your own backyard. This is the current movement for the domestic chicken as well and it's exciting to see how many people are interested in bringing their food resources home "to roost".

Consider the chicken's life in large scale industry, as compared to small scale micro-farms. This would not and could not, be for everyone everywhere. But won't you take a moment and learn about what the chicken really is and the contribution it has, does, and can make in modern American society?