Friday, December 2, 2011
Talking Points
Raising Farm Animals in Urban Settings Isn't the Idyllic Pastime It's Rumored to Be
Posted
By Jonathan Kauffman
on Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 7:30 AM
Other than the vegan and the ultra-pragmatic, who hasn't fantasized about raising chickens in their backyard? Or even having a big enough backyard to put a chicken coop in? The zeitgeist belongs to the urban farmers, the raisers of goats and tenders of beehives.
It may be easy to pooh-pooh those concerns until you're living next to a dying goat who's screaming all night, or fending off invasions from raccoons drawn to your neighbor's chicken coop. Oakland's city planners are trying to reconcile both the pros and the cons as they attempt to craft smart, sensitive regulations that benefit urban farmers and the surrounding community.
Tags: beekeeping, chickens, goats, urban farming, urban gardening, Image
