What the Cluck? Urban Chicken Coops

A Canadian man has forced the issue of urban chicken farming before courts in Calgary by reporting his own coop to authorities, and using the ensuing legal kerfuffle to argue that the city's chicken ban infringes on his constitutional rights.

Calgary Cries Fowl, Takes Chicken Owner to Court
by Cathryn Wellner, Care2 News

Reportedly, the man turned himself in to authorities to show solidarity with another urban chicken farmer who'd been fined for her coop. The man, founder of CLUCK (Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub), argued his case before the court this past spring. A decision from the judge on whether or not Calgary's chicken ban is unconstitutional is expected in September.

Urban chicken farming isn't what I normally think of as a contentious issue. There are people in cities who would love to raise chickens, and then there's people who think those people are crazy. Livestock is as congruous to city living as Birkenstocks are to the Oscars' red carpet parade. I've always assumed that urban chicken farming was something for the foodie, hobbyist types: eclectic, quaint and tolerable only to those who derive an aesthetic satisfaction from agriculture in miniature scale. I imagined urban chicken farming as a kind of affectation, like playing pan pipes or refusing to own a television. But the case of the Calgary chicken farmer is making me reconsider. In his defense, the CLUCK founder cited the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

 This got me thinking about urban chicken farming as something people do for food. Real food, not just surprise food, as in "Oh, look! My chicken laid an egg! Do you think we can eat it?" It would seem that the confluence of the green movement, foodies, and the economic downturn has piqued interest in chicken farming, and an increasing number of people see it as a cheap-ish, wholesome way to bring more nutritious food into their kitchens.That means that urban chicken farming isn't just a hobby, but a legitimate, nutritional and economic practice. This concept kind of blew my mind.

Granted, I've been holding a lot of preconceived and potentially erroneous assumptions about urban chicken farming all along. Maybe that's because, whenever the Hubsters expresses a yen for a flock of our own, I can't help but envision our tiny, little yard overrun with feathered fury. Such an endeavor can't possibly go right. But, thanks to the CLUCK man, I'm starting to see urban chicken farming as a viable means to combat the otherwise abysmal access to healthy foods that plagues the poorer sections of most American cities.Government and advocacy groups are increasingly highlighting this issue as one of the main causes of higher rates of disease, unemployment, and poor school performance in inner cities, all of which further class disparity. Wouldn't it be incredible if sustainable, small scale farming became part of a city's urban renewal project?


That being said, I'm certain that, if chicken farming becomes mainstream among the urban poor, the urban privileged will find a way to muck it up. Someone will find a way to capitalize on the trend with chicken farm accessories: designer coops, chicken collars, chicken day care, chicken doulas - the potential lunacy is brilliant.


Still, I hope CLUCK prevails in Calgary. Good luck, chicken man!