Please come to the council meeting next Monday night to crow about the sustainability of backyard chickens! This is an important time to cluck for change.

The February 2nd agenda includes a resolution created by Alder (and Stepper) Doug Wood to allow Monona residents to keep up to five chickens (no roosters) under appropriate conditions in single-family and two-family residence zoning districts. (See the ordinance highlights in the blog, “Urban Chickens.”)

Please speak or at least appear in support of it. Thirty-two people made a very powerful statement by making appearances before the council on December 1st in support of sustainability issues. The alders know that TNSM members are more knowledgeable about sustainability than the average person and (most) respect your commitment.

Monday, February 2, 2009 at 7:30 p.m., Monona Public Library, Community Media Room

Here are more positives about backyard chickens:

  • Financial sustainability.
  • Food security.
  • Eggs without antibiotics.
  • Fresher, and fresher-tasting, eggs.
  • Chickens eat table scraps and keep food waste out of our landfills.
  • Growing food locally is more sustainable.
  • Uses less energy.
  • No Styrofoam or cardboard container to dispose of.
  • Bird poop makes good compost and fertilizer.
  • Chickens eat bugs and weeds.
  • They make good pets.
  • Your pets make your breakfast. (Can your dog do that for you?)
  • Good educational tool for kids (and adults) who may not even know where eggs come from.
  • Puts you back in touch with the way food is produced, decreasing alienation from the natural world.
  • Much like keeping a cat or a dog, owners are required to take care of their animals.
  • You can raise them without stopping your neighbors from enjoying their own property.
  • If the use of one’s property does not bother the neighbors, the government should not prohibit something just because some see it as strange or weird.
  • Better for the birds than factory farms.
  • If you’re nice, your chicken-keeping neighbors may share their eggs with you.
  • If chicken-keeping can be done in the most urban of cities, New York City (YES! THEY DO!), surely we can do it here.