Dreaming big...with others

Last night I went to a meeting for the Transition Town London Food Working Group. many dreams/visions were shared for how our food system could be changed for the better but one of the main shared ones was to try to change the bylaw so that the keeping of chickens is allowed in London. I am very excited about this possibility. I have been interested in the keeping of urban chickens for a few years now. My interest may have first been piqued during the Nature in the City class I took during my undergrad (an Anthropology at UWO: good course, good prof, I highly recommend it). I'm a vegan but if I had a couple pet chickens I think I would probably eat their (non-fertalized eggs). Actually I hate the smell and taste of eggs so I would probaby just cook with them - although vegan baking is one of my most loved activities certain recipes, such as crepes would be SO much easier with eggs!!

To me chickens are important because they allow people another way in which to feed themsleves and their families. Urban chicken-keeping is so much more humane for the chickens as well. In the North American cities that currently allow urban chickens, they seem to be beloved pets as much as they are sources of food (mainly their eggs which are unfertilized because most cities that allow chickens do not allow roosters).  Compare that to the situation in which most chickens currently live - they are kept by the tens of tousands in the most disgusting conditons possible.   So, allowing chickens in cities makes the standard of living better for at least some chickens and it allows people to have a free source of regular protein in their diet.

As a permiculturalist my main interest in urban chickens is not as a source of food but as a valuable helper in the garden. Chickens eat lots of bugs and their poop is great for enriching the soil. I dream of a community garden in which there is a shared chicken coop and chicken tractor (a mobile enclosure used to protect chickens while allowing them opportunity to eat, play, scratch, and poop in the garden) and some beautiful and sweet pet chickens. It is so nice that other folks in my city also share my dream to varying degrees. I also dream of a co-opertaive bee hive but that is something for the future perhaps...

There are other dreams/visions for a better food system that I have shared with folks over the past couple days. A few coversations about the food deserts in the city (neighbourhoods were people have very little access to healthy, fresh foods) gave me the idea of doing community food mapping workshops in those neighbourhoods, maybe through the various neighbourhood resource centres (two of which I already work with). That is something that must be left for my post-MA life, however. Wouldn't it be great to have local farmer's markets - that somehow include affordable organics - in the areas that are currently food deserts?

Some of these dreams may be unrealistic but I believe in dreaming big and dreaming with others. I also believe in sharing our dreams and visions for a better world. What can YOU imagine? What are YOUR dreams for the earth and her inhabitants??