The New Urban Farmer

As long as you have a piece of land, you won't go hungry.

But unless you're a committed vegan, the plant material you grow isn't enough.

Vegetable gardens are growing in popularity. Whether it's to avoid E. coli infection, to avoid chemicals, or simply to taste the freshest possible produce, people everywhere are putting in gardens.

The new urban farmer wants to take that grow-it-yourself philosophy one step further.

The time has come, they believe, to ban the ban on chickens in urban locations. You have your vegetable plot. You need a chicken coop.

In Wilmette, Illinois, a well-heeled suburb of Chicago, local resident Diane Schaffner is pushing local authorities to change the laws so that Wilmettians can grow their own poultry.

It's allowed in the even wealthier enclave of Winnetka, just north of Wilmette, so why not make it equal? The Village President isn't quite so amenable to the change, by all appearances. There doesn't seem to be a groundswell of support, either, to allow chickens (or cows for that matter, and wouldn't fresh cream for your coffee be awesome) in residential areas.

Ms. Schaffner, being an organic gardener, sees the control she could have over what she eats, since she would have control over what her potential chickens would eat.

And she's not asking for a flock.

Chances are, the anti-chicken coop folks are afraid of an onslaught of rooster crowing, day in and day out. Ms. Schaffner might help her cause by educating the public, who are not new urban farmers and assume that there'll be no eggs without a rooster in the barn yard.

That hen in your back yard will give you a fresh egg every 26 hours without male companionship.

Hasn't the time come for us to practice more self-sufficiency? Now, about that milk cow...