Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[RaZ]

http://www.mirsnews.com/capsule.php?gid=4293#38846

Ag Commission Delays Approval Of Livestock Changes In Residential Areas

(EAST LANSING) -- The state agriculture commission held off today on approving controversial updates to a set of standards for livestock in residential areas, with some commissioners saying they'd like to study the effects of the changes more closely. The new language under fire was meant to clarify, according to agriculture officials, that livestock of any number are not allowed in primarily residential areas where agriculture is not expressly allowed in zoning.

Click on the link to read the full story.

 

[Mustaq Varish]

How ironic that on the day of the year that marks the start of the new growing season in the northern hemisphere…and after a presentation about the latest rendition of a National Farm Bill, I have to come to Lansing to defend my right to produce my own food on my own land. Hardly a week goes by anymore that someone doesn’t fall dead at the salad bar or gets contaminated with e-coli after eating poorly processed meats. In terms of absolute safety and food quality, big business and big government have failed the consumer.

One of the key concepts in America is personal choice and making your own food was a basic tenet of early American life. The founding fathers saw fit to include legislation about protecting human life with firearms but the right to provide your own food was apparently so fundamental that it must have seemed foolish to have to make laws to protect it. If people no longer have the right to feed themselves on their own property, what do we have left?

In as much as this meeting is open to the general public…I don’t believe the board is required to give equal weight to the comments and opinions of people in the audience especially when those comments run counter to the opinions of the GAAMPS chairpersons. If people still have questions about the reasons and rationale for the proposed changes to the site selection GAAMP, I suggest following the money to find the truth.

Now if big business wants an easier way to amass huge sums of money, just work with government to find a way to tax people who refuse to get involved in growing their own food on their own property. It’s a win-win for government and the environment since locally grown food is less energy intensive and those that eat the food are totally incented to do it right.

Additionally…all the politics on earth can’t impact the laws of physics. With ever diminishing fossil fuels and no solar-powered backhoes or combines in the foreseeable future, people will inevitably return to hunting, gathering and subsistence farming for survival. Rules put in place now to curtail personal farming serve to change the status of small independent producers to that of small dependent consumers and I’m sure that’s part of the plan. Whether such a shift can be perpetually supported in a healthful manner by big business remains to be seen. One thing big business will never turn their backs on is an increase in the number of consumers and eliminating competing producers is simply an added benefit.

In the same way that a basketball with corners is not a basketball, and a balloon full of holes is not a balloon, a Right to Farm Act with a site selection GAAMP as proposed is no longer a functioning Right to Farm Act. 1981 is not that long ago, and while I was chasing Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic, some of the board members were spending long hours crafting the initial version of this act which became the envy of the country’s home farming movement. I can only imagine what kind of pressure is being applied to you now to turn those good intentions on their head. In the three minutes that I’ve been up here now, one of our chickens may have laid another egg and eating that egg might let me live another day or so. So…no matter what, this time talking has been well spent for me.

The Michigan Right to Farm Act…”What the big print giveth, the little print taketh away”.

 

[Faraday40]

love the home made feeder by the way, may try the pvc joint in a bucket, have you tried putting in more then one?

I used a large diameter elbow joint (maybe 4"), so I don't think there would be enough room for more than one unless a larger bucket or storage tub were used. The sides must be flat & made of a rigid plastic. Found buckets worked perfectly (& were free.) My baby chick feeder (formerly a jar of mixed nuts) has a thinner, flexible plastic, so the glue can not hold the 2" elbow perfectly in place. I must sometimes adjust or reglue, but it still works better than any feeder I purchased.

 

[iamfivewire]

Congrats on your silkie awards jen

 

[fuzzybutt love]

I would like a map of where chickens are welcomed at townships. At least then i'd know where i can move to without looking over my shoulder!!!!!

 

[Trefoil]

It's funny that they say that large rural properties won't be effected by the change. They have already said via a conference call between my township, Michigan Senator's office, and MDARD they said that I DO NOT HAVE RIGHT TO FARM PROTECTION BECAUSE IM ZONED RESIDENTIAL! So if this is already their claim (that I supposedly don't have RTF protection due to my township zoning) then what's going to happen if these changes do go into effect?!? These changes specifically spell out that ALL residential zoned property will be excluded from RTF protection, even my 50+ acres, or my neighbors 1,000+ acres zoned residential...
I've already begun my next round of blowing up their phones. MDARD was my first call today, tomorrow will be a follow up with Stabbenow's office, etc.
the squeaky wheel gets the oil, right?

Perhaps someone should point out to the gaamp chair and her fellow coherts ( minus any who are being reasonable about this) that zoning is purely incidental to any rational evaluation of possible land use. To use the fact that it is zoned residential to prohibit the person owning 50 acres of that land from owning livestock and denying them the protection of right to farm is a clear abuse of power. I also am a firm believer that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. I willingly thank Ms. Stabenow for her support.

 

[Maah]

When had porcelain chicks last year they weren't as yellow. They had a definite yellow and grey color. Hm... It was at the TSC in Hudsonville, so I couldn't have picked it up to count toes and look at skin.
I emailed Townline today asking about porcelains. They said if I can be there at 8am on a M, T, or W they could try to snag some before they pack them up.
Where(ish) are you? If this is the route I go, I can get some for you, too, if that makes sense for our locations.

Ooohhh... Maybe Maybe. I'm in the Wayland area, so not too far out from Townline. How good are you at picking out the pullets? Ha, ya ya ok.

I can't go to Townline in the morning since I start working at 6am (4:30 today, blech - at least I work from my home) and don't get done until 2pm. It's my daughter that is wanting the banties to work with for her 4H project. She is looking for 3-4 banties. Maybe 1 porcelain, 2 mille fleur, and 1 old english. ??

I've been checking at FFH every week for the past month. No banties. At first they told me they were going to wait until it got warmer out (which is understandable), but the last time I was there I was told they aren't planning on getting them in at all now. Pff.

If you decide to make the trip to Townline and are willing, let me know - though I wouldn't be able to meet up with you somewhere until after 2. Thanks.

Oh, and TSC's "no touching the chicks" rule is really stupid - IMO - which is why I love FFH so much better. Just saying. LOL.

 

[JackieandChicks]

Great idea with the feeders - I am going to have to try, but I am now feeding my feeds wet - so don't know how that will work.

After all the work of moving the older chicks to the porch, we are now going to have a cold snap, like teens. I guess I'll dig up a large cat carrier and put them in that at night this weekend so they don't get chilled.

Spring, where are you!

 

[1muttsfan]

Hey Jen, congratulations on your wins!!

How are your lovely hares doing?

For those not as familiar with breeds, the porceleins and milles (short for Mille Fleur) spoke of previously are Belgian Bearded D'uccles, a bantam breed. Porcelein and Mille are colors. They are very sweet and pretty little birds.

3 milles and a porcelein

 

[Mustaq Varish]

There is no more "running away" or "moving away" to where everything is going to be OK anymore. There is no more "wilderness" and no place left that is remote or safe. All has fallen under the control of seven billion humans. If you want a more secure future, the only remaining option is to dig-in your heels, stay where you are and fight for what's right. The north suburbs of Detroit are the south suburbs of Flint. I don't care if you think about moving to some more remote corner of the U.P. because up there you'll have to deal with poachers, illegal loggers, trespassers, errant snowmobilers. Even if the governing "officials" allow your farming operations.