Wendell Berry

A report from Stephen Bartlett of the Community Farm Alliance, posted on the site of The Organic Consumers Association, http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18076.cfm, is one of the few places Wendell Berry's impassioned presentation to the USDA against the National Animal Identification System during one of the USDA's recent Listening Sessions was reported:



Wendell Berry, also wearing a nice suit, said that the problem N.A.I.S. was supposed to solve was a problem caused by agricultural industrialists themselves, who now intended to use that problem as a pretext to further marginalize and limit the possibilities of small-scale agriculture. He said it was insulting to rural Kentuckians that USDA had hired policemen to be present at this listening session. He noted that USDA's fear of the people they were supposed to be serving made it clear what N.A.I.S. was all about. And he said that if NAIS were implemented, USDA was going to need far more than a couple of policemen to deal with the resistance and civil disobedience that would result. Naming Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. as honorable examples of the tradition of non-violent non-compliance, Berry said he would absolutely not comply with N.A.I.S. As an older person, he said he had little to lose by going to jail for the sake of the younger generations whose lives and livelihoods would be threatened or eliminated by such oppression, and who still did have much to lose.



Another blog, cakeaustin, includes some information about the meeting:



Wendell Berry gave a rousing speech declaring that this was the first meeting he’d been at with USDA, after decades of activism, where USDA brought armed police to protect itself.

http://cakeaustin.com/2009/05/27/nais-update-wendell-berry-speaks/

Here's the text of his statement:

The need to trace animals was made by the confined animal industry – which are, essentially, disease breeding operations. The health issue was invented right there. The remedy is to put animals back on pasture, where they belong. The USDA is scapegoating the small producers to distract attention from the real cause of the trouble. Presumably these animal factories are, in a too familiar phrase, “too big to fail.”

This is the first agricultural meeting I’ve ever been to in my life that was attended by the police. I asked one of them why he was there and he said: “Rural Kentucky”. So thank you for your vote of confidence in the people you are supposed to be representing. (applause) I think the rural people of Kentucky are as civilized as anybody else.

But the police are here prematurely. If you impose this program on the small farmers, who are already overburdened, you’re going to have to send the police for me. I’m 75 years old. I’ve about completed my responsibilities to my family. I’ll lose very little in going to jail in opposition to your program – and I’ll have to do it. Because I will be, in every way that I can conceive of, a non-cooperator.

I understand the principles of civil disobedience, from Henry Thoreau to Martin Luther King. And I’m willing to go to jail to defend the young people who, I hope, will still have a possibility of becoming farmers on a small scale in this supposedly free country. Thank you very much.

It's posted at http://www.foodrenegade.com/wendell-berry-picks-jail-over-nais/.

I'm disappointed that the daily papers have ignored these meetings, even with such a prominent advocate as Mr. Berry appearing. His bio on poets.org is here, http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/675. This portrait is from http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/pgs/portraits/Wendell_Berry.html.

Pullets Needed -- LA area

Dayna in the Los Angeles area contacted me for some laying pullets to join the now solitary one at her house. Dayna acquired two chicks, but when one turned out to be a rooster, he had to move out of her suburban neighborhood. Olive, who may be a Brahma/Ameraucana cross, is lonely without him. Their attachment to each other is obvious in this video posted by Dayna's husband Mark, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkU_NFu6X0U.

Chickens are flock birds and will seek companionship with other animals or people if there are no other chickens available. Like many birds, they imprint within days of hatching on the significant living critter around them. Since Olive spent her formative days with Yuba, the rooster, she is imprinted on chickens.

Dayna notes that Olive doesn't make the companionable clucking sounds she used to make to Yuba now that she is alone.

My friend Barbara Bullock, who wrote an article about her Buttercups in this month's Backyard Poultry, http://tinyurl.com/pyvfx4, offered a couple of her surplus pullets to keep Olive company. We'll see whether we can arrange transportation from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles for those girls and give Olive some company.

If any readers are in the area and have some pullets to spare, please let me know and I'll put you in touch with Dayna.

Blue Geese

Rare Blue Geese are now available through top waterfowl breeder Dave Holderread, at his Holderread Waterfowl Farm & Preservation Center in Corvallis, Oregon, http://tinyurl.com/p84o6y. This two-year-old gander is an exemplar of color and type.

Craig Russell, president of the SPPA, passed the word about the Blue Geese to me, after he heard from a colleague who purchased some. He says this new owner reports the goslings, beginning to feather out, are some of the most beautiful he has ever seen. Craig is delighted and plans to acquire some for himself next year.

At right, the photo shows the distinction between blue and lavender color varieties. Dave gave me permission to post his copyright photos on my blog. Thanks, Dave. They are beautiful and impressive birds.

More NAIS Listening Sessions scheduled

The USDA has scheduled six additional Listening Sessions on NAIS. Thus far, the places and dates haven't been posted to the USDA site, but are announced in the Federal Register. Pass the word and attend if possible. Contact me or Mary Zanoni of Farm for Life, http://www.farmforlife.org/, if you would like help preparing your presentation.

From the Federal Register:

SUMMARY: This is a notice to inform the public of six upcoming meetings to discuss stakeholder concerns related to the implementation of the National Animal Identification System. The meetings are being organized by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

DATES: The meetings will be held on June 9, 11, 16, 18, 25, and 27, 2009, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.

ADDRESSES: The public meetings will be held in Jefferson City, MO (June 9), Rapid City, SD (June 11), Albuquerque, NM (June 16), Riverside, CA (June 18), Raleigh, NC (June 25), and Jasper, FL (June 27).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Adam Grow, Director, Surveillance and
Identification Programs, National Center for Animal Health Programs, VS, APHIS, 4700 River Road, Unit 200, Riverdale, MD 20737; (301) 734–3752.

Although preregistration is not required, participants are asked to preregister by sending APHIS an e-mail at NAISSessions@aphis.usda.gov or calling 301–734–0799. In the subject
line of the e-mail, indicate your name (or organization name) and the location of the meeting you plan to attend. If you wish to present comments during one of the meetings, please include your name (or organization name) and address in the body of the message. Members of the public who are not able to attend may also submit and view comments via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocketDetail&d=APHIS-2009-0027

Urban chickens

Indeed! I was blessed to visit an urban garden and an urban farm in New York City on my recent visit. Walt L. Shamel Community Garden is in the Crown Height section of Brooklyn, managed by Greg and Debbie Anderson.

That's me on the right, talking with Rodney Duncan, a volunteer at the garden, Greg and Debbie. They have taken a vacant lot and turned it into a community garden in the past five years. Local residents are assigned sections where they grow whatever they like. Tomatoes are popular.

They keep seven chicken s there for their eggs and the delight they add to the garden. While we were there, the girls roamed the garden, enjoying scratching and pecking.

We also visited Abu Talib, who has cultivated the one-acre Taqwa Community Farm in The Bronx, two blocks from Yankee Stadium, for 17 years. Tallie took over the site after the city had demolished the duplex that had proved otherwise resistant to efforts to eliminate drug dealing. He planted fruit trees right away, so he has mature pear, apple, peach, cherry, nectarine, plum, apricot, crabapple and fig trees now.

Community members garden their plots in the farm. Kids play on the playground structure that was donated. "Kids bring the family in," he says.

His ten chickens occupy a comfortable coop and provide eagerly sought eggs.

He's got a hydroponic project in the works. I look forward to hearing how that works out.

Visiting these gardening projects and seeing how they influence the community around them was inspiring. The flower beds around the trees on Dean Street in Brooklyn were all carefully kept. Growing plants soothes us and keeping chickens warms our hearts. These are wonderful projects that help all around them.

Chickens inside the Beltway

Hot Chicks: Legal or Not, Chickens are the Chic New Backyard Addition, http://tinyurl.com/rxcbm8, writes Adrian Higgins in the 14 May 09 Washington Post.

The story includes a slide show of these lively chickens. The flair people have with their chickens delights me: one rooster is T. Boone Chickens.

This blog will be on hiatus for a few days, while I travel to New York for a panel on Brave New World of Media and Journalism, http://www.asja.org/calendar/calendar.php. While I'm in the Big Apple, I'll visit with some other Urban Chicken people. Full report when I return.

Wyandottes

Wyandottes are mentioned as early as 1873, but were not admitted to the APA Standard of Perfection until 1883, when the Silver Laced variety, represented by this rooster, whose photo graces the Wyandotte Breeders of America site, http://wyandottebreedersofamerica.com/wbaindex.html, was admitted. Their origins are variously reported as New York State and England, both of which are reflected in early references to them as American Sebrights and Sebright Cochins. The Silver Laced large fowl has the color and pattern of Sebright bantams.

They reflect their Asiatic ancestry in their yellow skin. Their eggs range in color from light to rich brown. Their rose combs with a downward curved spike are distinctive, probably inherited from their Spangled Hamburg forebears. Note the comb in this drawing, done by J.W. Ludlow for Lewis Wright's original Illustrated Book of Poultry. It was reproduced by Dr. J. Batty in Lewis Wright's Poultry, 1983.

The comb remains a significant point for breeders. Its small size close to the head makes it resistant to freezing, an advantage in cold climates. Dark and Light Brahmas gave them size and color pattern, although the Dark Brahma color markings are unacceptable in the breed now. All Wyandottes have rose combs regardless of feather color. They feather quickly as they grow. They are substantial birds, with mature males weighing 8 ½ lbs. and hens 6 ½ lbs.

In 1890, Lewis Wright wrote in the Illustrated Book of Poultry: “A breed like this has supplied a distinct gap in existing poultry classes, giving a large fowl with admirably useful qualities, combines with the beautiful laced marking, and a handsome shape.”

Wisconsin breeders developed Golden Laced Wyandottes from a Partridge Cochin/Brown Leghorn cross rooster and a Silver Laced Wyandotte hen. They were admitted to the Standard in 1888, along with the Whites. The White variety was selectively bred from sports that appeared spontaneously in Silver laced flocks. At first, the white sports were considered an embarrassment, an indication of lack of purity in the flock.

“Efforts were made to shield the fact until it became known that they would be advanced as a true variety of the Wyandotte family;” Mr. T.E. Orr writes in the 1912 edition of Harrison Weir’s Poultry Book. “Then many willingly acknowledged the presence of the White in their yards.” Orr is credited with starting his Wyandotte breeding operation in Pennsylvania two years before Wyandottes achieved APA recognition.

Orr was the breeder editors Willis Johnson and George Brown turned to when they were updating The Poultry Book to increase the information about the breed. They called Wyandottes “ …one of the most important breeds of fowls of American production. Indeed, they might be properly called our most popular breed, when all varieties are considered.” They noted that Weir originally dismissed Wyandottes in a brief, vague account, which they corrected by soliciting a more detailed account from Orr.

As Wyandottes gained popularity, their advocates developed Buff, Black, Partridge, Silver Penciled, Columbian and Blue varieties, which are now recognized. Fanciers raise Cuckoo, Barred, Buff Laced, Violet Laced, Red, Blue Laced Red, Buff Columbian and other unrecognized varieties.

The Columbian color pattern which now graces varieties of many breeds got its name from the Wyandottes exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, the World’s Fair, in Chicago.

The poultry magazines dating to the early 20th century recently donated by Mrs. Louise Burr shows many highly competitive advertisements for Wyandottes. The back cover of the August 1910 copy of Commercial Poultry has four competing breeders offering White, Buff and Partridge Wyandottes, in Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

An excellent dual purpose breed for the small flock owner and exhibition poultry keeper. Beautiful and productive, with a whisper of mystery in its past. Consider Wyandottes for your flock.