When the Chickens Come Home to Roost
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Who wants to join us on Sunday for the annual Backyard Chicken Coop Bicycling Tour? The tour starts at 1pm, at 448 Lincoln Avenue. The tour is 4 1/2 miles. It covers 35 gardens, which are said to house 165 hens.
This should be a fun, easy ride. Alameda is flat as flat can be. There's a 25 mile-per-hour speed limit on the entire island. If you haven't been on your bike in ages, this might be a fun excuse to pull it out of storage.
And while we're on the subject of Backyard Chickens, I strongly urge my blog readers to click over to my sister's blog, Brooklyn Feed. Martha keeps a small flock of hens in Brooklyn, and is passionate about animal welfare and educating people about where their food comes from. She and her chickens have been been on national television, and are frequent classroom visitors in New York City. She loves her hens.
Earlier this week, she was invited to be part of a panel discussion at Lincoln Center. The discussion followed the screening of Fowl Play, which is an intense and disturbing documentary about industrial egg farming. Martha was invited to be part of a discussion, presenting alternatives to factory farming.
Sounds, great, right?
It was a fiasco. My chicken-hugging, animal-loving sister was accused of complicity with the worst animal abusers in agro-business. Martha does a great job telling the story over at Brooklyn Feed. Do take a moment to read her article.
Who wants to join us on Sunday for the annual Backyard Chicken Coop Bicycling Tour? The tour starts at 1pm, at 448 Lincoln Avenue. The tour is 4 1/2 miles. It covers 35 gardens, which are said to house 165 hens.
This should be a fun, easy ride. Alameda is flat as flat can be. There's a 25 mile-per-hour speed limit on the entire island. If you haven't been on your bike in ages, this might be a fun excuse to pull it out of storage.
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And while we're on the subject of Backyard Chickens, I strongly urge my blog readers to click over to my sister's blog, Brooklyn Feed. Martha keeps a small flock of hens in Brooklyn, and is passionate about animal welfare and educating people about where their food comes from. She and her chickens have been been on national television, and are frequent classroom visitors in New York City. She loves her hens.
Earlier this week, she was invited to be part of a panel discussion at Lincoln Center. The discussion followed the screening of Fowl Play, which is an intense and disturbing documentary about industrial egg farming. Martha was invited to be part of a discussion, presenting alternatives to factory farming.
Sounds, great, right?
It was a fiasco. My chicken-hugging, animal-loving sister was accused of complicity with the worst animal abusers in agro-business. Martha does a great job telling the story over at Brooklyn Feed. Do take a moment to read her article.
Comments
But I've realized there's a less accusing name that is equally applicable to this branch of humanity: simpletons. Their cognitive processes are such that there is no room for shades of grey in behaviour, and there is no ability to conceptualize that other people's versions of "right" may utterly contradict theirs but be just as right given their circumstances. It is this developmental handicap above all others, I would argue, that has caused and continued the most wars, murders, and feuds in human history--the inability to fathom that nothing is absolute.
Sorry, that was a bit verbose. It's just been on my mind. I hope this finds you well. Have fun on your coop-cycle!