- May 28, 2008
- 218
- 6
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Here are two letters from yesterday's Chronicle Herald - the main newspaper of Halifax, Nova Scotia:
Voice of the people
Tue. Feb 10 - 4:46 AM
Issue no joke
Your article "Who allows urban chickens?" (Feb. 5) plays up the idea that the urban chicken debate is a waste of time and resources, somehow on par with HRM councils inane debates on cat bylaws. In fact, the decision whether to allow hens in Halifax for domestic egg production is an important topic relating to food security, food safety and urban sustainability, and it deserves the attention of council.
My Grade 12 geography students understand the environmental and socioeconomic benefits of producing food close to home. Please dont do your readers a disservice by treating the issue as a big joke.
Ben Sichel, Dartmouth
Dialogue needed
I would like to invite the citizens of HRM to have some serious dialogue about the present chicken bylaws and make their feelings known to their councillors. A report that was to be presented to the Peninsula community council this week supports the present narrow-minded view of not allowing householders to keep a small flock for their own egg use in most of the urban areas of HRM.
Please consider what this means. It is easier for the councillors to keep to the safe status quo and to believe the self-serving rhetoric of the industrial food producers. Most of us of middle-age and older can remember a time when it was absolutely ordinary for every family in the city and country to keep a small flock, to grow a small garden and even to keep a "family cow." These werent farmers or agriculturists; they were folks who knew how to survive hard economic times.
I keep a small flock in Prospect Bay. Four hens provide all the eggs my family of four needs. Besides the eggs given, we have culled the cockerels and had several good stews and soups, and we will have a rich source of compost for our vegetable garden this summer. Oh, is it safe to grow our own vegetables? Heaven knows we may soon be advised it is not.
Jan Morrison, Prospect Bay
Voice of the people
Tue. Feb 10 - 4:46 AM
Issue no joke
Your article "Who allows urban chickens?" (Feb. 5) plays up the idea that the urban chicken debate is a waste of time and resources, somehow on par with HRM councils inane debates on cat bylaws. In fact, the decision whether to allow hens in Halifax for domestic egg production is an important topic relating to food security, food safety and urban sustainability, and it deserves the attention of council.
My Grade 12 geography students understand the environmental and socioeconomic benefits of producing food close to home. Please dont do your readers a disservice by treating the issue as a big joke.
Ben Sichel, Dartmouth
Dialogue needed
I would like to invite the citizens of HRM to have some serious dialogue about the present chicken bylaws and make their feelings known to their councillors. A report that was to be presented to the Peninsula community council this week supports the present narrow-minded view of not allowing householders to keep a small flock for their own egg use in most of the urban areas of HRM.
Please consider what this means. It is easier for the councillors to keep to the safe status quo and to believe the self-serving rhetoric of the industrial food producers. Most of us of middle-age and older can remember a time when it was absolutely ordinary for every family in the city and country to keep a small flock, to grow a small garden and even to keep a "family cow." These werent farmers or agriculturists; they were folks who knew how to survive hard economic times.
I keep a small flock in Prospect Bay. Four hens provide all the eggs my family of four needs. Besides the eggs given, we have culled the cockerels and had several good stews and soups, and we will have a rich source of compost for our vegetable garden this summer. Oh, is it safe to grow our own vegetables? Heaven knows we may soon be advised it is not.
Jan Morrison, Prospect Bay
