Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

Looks like Germany is importing eating eggs because of law of not killing cockerel chicks.

https://www.poultryworld.net/the-in...2/germany-only-a-few-hatcheries-will-survive/
personally, I am in favour of any law that changes industrial chicken farming for the better of the chickens concerned, and as one knock-on effect of this bit of legislation seems to have been to encourage a move back to dual purpose breeds and less excessive output (of eggs or lbs of meat gained per week) - albeit at minute scale thus far - I think it's a good thing.
 
Perhaps we could change to multi purpose to include all the other benefits of having chickens that are not included in consuming their eggs and carcasses.
Now, there's an idea.

As a farmer, I'm part of a movement back towards agroforestry -- growing good in diversified ecosystems with an emphasis on perennial tree crops -- in plain language, food that grows from trees year after year. Berry shrubs and herbs grow in the understory and forest-adapted animals like chickens, turkeys, and landrace pigs complement and enhance the ecosystem AND the food stream.

Instead of these massive fields of GMO wheat, corn and soy dominating landscapes and wiping out biodiversity, agroforestry allows humans and nature to cohabitate -- even better, by doing it humans realize they are part of nature. Different forms of agroforestry were found all over the world. Pigs rooting for morels under chestnut trees in the Mediterranean. Cocoa growing under banana and jackfruit trees like we do here in Ecuador. Of course, indigenous groups around the world all have their own names for their ancestral agroforestry practices.

I bring it up because the most interesting and difficult part of what I do is having to explain to people that a tree -- like a chicken -- isn't just a source of "output" in terms of food or revenue. A tree creates rain, cools the air, sequesters carbon, makes fertilizer (mulch) prevents erosion, and with other trees creates and feeds a whole universe of underground life.

Chickens also aerate soil, fertilize, and to me, more than anything else, can teach humans how to steward and keep watch over other living beings with respect to their feral nature, their own variety of intelligence. An agroforestry farm and a free range chicken arrangement have much in common: they both occupy the liminal space between wild and domesticated. The benefits to humans of embracing and working in this space are vast.
 
@BDutch
Do they have this in your country?
Screenshot_20230428-070610.png


https://www.poultryworld.net/the-in...aring-male-chicks-as-alternative-meat-source/
 
Now, there's an idea.

As a farmer, I'm part of a movement back towards agroforestry -- growing good in diversified ecosystems with an emphasis on perennial tree crops -- in plain language, food that grows from trees year after year. Berry shrubs and herbs grow in the understory and forest-adapted animals like chickens, turkeys, and landrace pigs complement and enhance the ecosystem AND the food stream.

Instead of these massive fields of GMO wheat, corn and soy dominating landscapes and wiping out biodiversity, agroforestry allows humans and nature to cohabitate -- even better, by doing it humans realize they are part of nature. Different forms of agroforestry were found all over the world. Pigs rooting for morels under chestnut trees in the Mediterranean. Cocoa growing under banana and jackfruit trees like we do here in Ecuador. Of course, indigenous groups around the world all have their own names for their ancestral agroforestry practices.

I bring it up because the most interesting and difficult part of what I do is having to explain to people that a tree -- like a chicken -- isn't just a source of "output" in terms of food or revenue. A tree creates rain, cools the air, sequesters carbon, makes fertilizer (mulch) prevents erosion, and with other trees creates and feeds a whole universe of underground life.

Chickens also aerate soil, fertilize, and to me, more than anything else, can teach humans how to steward and keep watch over other living beings with respect to their feral nature, their own variety of intelligence. An agroforestry farm and a free range chicken arrangement have much in common: they both occupy the liminal space between wild and domesticated. The benefits to humans of embracing and working in this space are vast.
I have been told that in order to feed the over population of people, intensive monoculture farming is needed.
 
Now, there's an idea.

As a farmer, I'm part of a movement back towards agroforestry -- growing good in diversified ecosystems with an emphasis on perennial tree crops -- in plain language, food that grows from trees year after year. Berry shrubs and herbs grow in the understory and forest-adapted animals like chickens, turkeys, and landrace pigs complement and enhance the ecosystem AND the food stream.

Instead of these massive fields of GMO wheat, corn and soy dominating landscapes and wiping out biodiversity, agroforestry allows humans and nature to cohabitate -- even better, by doing it humans realize they are part of nature. Different forms of agroforestry were found all over the world. Pigs rooting for morels under chestnut trees in the Mediterranean. Cocoa growing under banana and jackfruit trees like we do here in Ecuador. Of course, indigenous groups around the world all have their own names for their ancestral agroforestry practices.

I bring it up because the most interesting and difficult part of what I do is having to explain to people that a tree -- like a chicken -- isn't just a source of "output" in terms of food or revenue. A tree creates rain, cools the air, sequesters carbon, makes fertilizer (mulch) prevents erosion, and with other trees creates and feeds a whole universe of underground life.

Chickens also aerate soil, fertilize, and to me, more than anything else, can teach humans how to steward and keep watch over other living beings with respect to their feral nature, their own variety of intelligence. An agroforestry farm and a free range chicken arrangement have much in common: they both occupy the liminal space between wild and domesticated. The benefits to humans of embracing and working in this space are vast.
I think that's a great project but I think you'll find it a hard sell on this forum.
 

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