Backyard Chickens

I have been toying with the idea of backyard chickens for a while now, and found this great article on EcoSpace about building a chicken trailer. The concept reminds me of Joel Salatin's method of rotating chickens through his property as described in The Omnivore's Dilemma. My cousin has chickens and just self-harvested them for the first time this summer...ewww!!! Luckily I don't eat meat so I wouldn't have to butcher my chickens; even though the thought of doing it makes my stomach turn, I applaud her for dealing with her own meat consumption. If more people did this there would be far fewer meat eaters, and those that did eat meat would eat it less often. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently called for a reduction of personal meat consumption as one of the top things people can do to affect climate change. While we've known that for a while, it's even more powerful coming from such a well respected group of scientists.

If raising backyard chickens isn't your idea of a good time, perhaps you'd consider having an "all-vegetarian" potluck with your friends or family in honor of World Vegetarian Day in October? You can show people that vegetarian food is delicious, and talk about climate change as one of the big reasons to reduce meat consumption. Maybe you could even inspire yourself or your guests to take the 30 Day Veg Pledge!