My wife does that. If I'm not at the grocery store WITH her, she will add between 10% and 25% to our grocery bill by buying organic, free-range everything.

That's where you pay extra for them to leave stuff out.

Lamont

I buy local eggs anyhow, but it would serve California right if all the poultry farmers were to close up shop.

Boy
When you say something I disagree with am I ever going to fry your ass!
Claude

Amy does your freind have a yard? OR an HOA?

YOu can buy your own chickens, hens dont make much noise unless being attacked, dont know about the price in CA, but in AZ you can pick up a dozen for $10.

Feed them table scraps and whatever has gone bad in your fridge that you have to throw out and you'll get a couple dozen eggs a week no problem.

Some farmers markets will let you have unsellable produce and you can always by extra bread at one of those stores that sells bread cheap if you dont have enough scraps

And you can claim them as 'organic pest control' to an HOA

Sometimes, the electorate thinks like a mob mentality. Before the bill they had the choice to buy "Guilt-Free" eggs. Now, not only they forced the entire state to buy such eggs but they also asked to the producers to keep the price down, albeit the loss they will take retooling their enterprise and the loss due to a depreciating farming practice.

Here we go, this is nothing much more than state-sponsored destruction of an enterprise.

This remembers me a great injustice that also happen in California: the "Pink Jim Crow" laws (proposition 8) who banned non-heterosexual marriage in the State.

Mob mentality, I thought we were over it...

I find this funny.

Funnier still? I saw a news story not too long ago about Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles keeping chickens in their backyards, which is a violation of a city bylaw.

So, Mexicans in L.A. will be keeping illegal chickens in their backyards and eating organic free range eggs, while those who get their eggs at the supermarket will be eating non-organic, non-free range eggs from out of state, and California egg producers will go out of business. Huh, how about that?

At least Californians have the opportunity to fix their mistakes, assuming they learn from them. In New York, you will eat what Albany serves, period.

On the bright side, we don't have traffic jams upstate. There aren't enough people left.

We don't keep chickens, but we do grow a vegetable garden every year, and can and/or freeze the leftover produce. I buy regular, local brown eggs from the local supermarket. It's funny, my next door neighbor just called to find out what time the kids get out of school today. It's an early dismissal because of the *gasp!* SNOW!! Oh NO! It only just started snowing really hard about 10 minutes ago, so there won't be much accumulation before they get out (noon for the high schools, 12:30 for the middle schools, 1 o'clock for the elementary schools). We can't keep chickens in yards in our town because of some sort of bylaw, but there are several family-run farms in the area that have them. They stink to high heaven, though!

And what about lettuce? Have you ever seen how tightly packed rows of growing lettuce are? Those nasty commercial lettuce growers should have to give each head of lettuce a minimum of three square feet in which to grow. Let's make free range lettuce mandatory!

In New York, if your food nanny in chief has his way, illicit salt will soon be sold on the street corner by furtive men in hoodies.

Plus ca change.

Salt has been one of the most heavily taxed items in history. Heavy salt taxes and salt monoplies were a major cause of the French Revolution and of Gandhi's revolt against the British.

Salt smuggling and black market salt were pretty common until only recently.

Mexicans will become egg millionaires selling out of their back yards and spare bedrooms.

Now I do object to the way chickens are kept in egg factories. So I make a point to buy the cage free eggs even though they cost more. The only other food choice that I make a point to purchase ethically is chocolate. If you think cruelty free eggs are expensive, try cruelty free chocolate.

But that's *my* choice based on my ethics and income.

(I'm waiting for the day I can keep a few of my own chickens. As soon as I get a yard I'm getting a few chickens)

I say, if we can send men and women to the moon, then we can have cheap, organic, happy, free-range, white, extra-large chicken eggs for $.99 per dozen. We only lack the will to change the chicken, the farmer, and to improve the American way of life, for us and for the chickens.

I remember eggs fondly from when I was a boy. They were delicious in so many ways. It is an injustice that they should be priced out the range of hard working Americans.

I call for an immediate and temporary subsidy of $2.26 per dozen to lower the price of these environmentally friendly and tasty eggs to a price that all Americans and my supporters can afford. We can borrow the money, so it is free. This will stimulate the economy and provide needed funds to support chicken and egg research.

I call for immediate Congressional hearings on how and why the cabal of organic farmers has not made these changes to better serve the American public. They are a vital link in the relationship of all Americans to the natural, sustainable farm.

We must expose the greed and insensitivity to the needs of all Americans that is at the root of this robbery. Americans deserve these eggs at a fair price, and we should legislate to deliver these eggs to them.

(This is sarcasm, if you didn't already know.)

Andrew_M_Garland
Easy Opinions

@Robert:

Not to mention all the money they'll make on the cockfights. And they get to eat the loser. It's all win-win for the Mexicans!

I call for an immediate and temporary subsidy of $2.26 per dozen to lower the price of these environmentally friendly and tasty eggs to a price that all Americans and my supporters can afford. We can borrow the money, so it is free. This will stimulate the economy and provide needed funds to support chicken and egg research.

California has done a great job of branding their cheese, (happy cows don't cha know) and their raisins. Egglands Best has also successfully branded their flax fed chicken eggs. Niman Ranch built its brand on free range farming practices.

These aren't just niche brands aimed at whole fooders. This law does present an opportunity for California producers to differentiate themselves. Whether the current economy is too big of a hurdle remains to be seen, but I look forward to the marketing campaign.

I get where you're coming from Amy, but poor people don't NEED eggs. If they NEED them to live, they can pay another dollar extra to eat them.

I speak from experience, of course. There have been times where I have been homeless and without food. However, I think the thousands and thousands of other food options were more than suitable, and it is more than worth it to me that the animals we kill/use for food are at least comfortable during their short lives. Not much to ask at all.

It's fun to think about my townhouse development with chickens scratching around in every yard. Why stop there? I bet I could probably squeeze a pig into the tiny space in back of my house. I'd bet I'd have trouble getting my kids to take it out for walks every day, though. Not to mention the anguish when it came time to make bacon out of it...

Sorry, just stream-of-conciousness drivel...

pigs, rpm, are disgusting, if left outside they need a wallow to cool of as they dont sweat, they smell like shit, and destroy the ground where they are kept. Its been six yearts scince I raised pigs, and weeds wont grow in their pen til this day

Though there is nothing quite like the flavor of fresh(just killed minuets ago) pork

@lujlp: "pigs, rpm, are disgusting..."

Oh well, scratch the piggies, then...

Amy, that would be New York City, which is to the rest of the state like California is to the rest of the US. Take that as "different."

I think Bloomberg is about ready to put a bounty on groundhogs after he just got bit by one. Too bad. For the groundhog, I mean.

and it is more than worth it to me that the animals we kill/use for food are at least comfortable during their short lives.

If it's worth it to you, you can choose to pay for it. If it's not worth it to me, I should not be forced to pay for it.

"illicit salt will soon be sold on the street corner by furtive men in hoodies."

Yo, check it out, I got pink, straight up Himalayan, I got iodized, I got Dead Sea, twenty bucks, yo!

I say kill two birds with one stone. (Aphoristic birds, that is, not those darling chickens.) Legalize marijuana and feed it to the chickens. Presto! Happy chickens.

Suddenly, I got an image of a Rastafarian chicken in my mind, it's not a good sight...

Ganja shouldn't be left to the poultry.

I think we should be able to buy the older ones at a reduced price, and throw them at politicians.

City-raised chickens are very doable and practical - even for "considerate" neighbors.

You need as few as four chickens to get just over a dozen eggs a week. So you buy 6 hatchlings. Only roosters make noise - so you just take any maturing males to the butcher, since they are not needed for eggs.

They live nicely protected in what the Brits call a "chicken ark" - in the US it's called a "chicken tractor". Humane living space for 4 chickens is still smaller than a motorcycle with a sidecar, or a large gas grill.

Website on urban chicken raising:
http://home.centurytel.net/thecitychicken/index.html

so you just take any maturing males to the butcher,

Or kill and pluck them your selves, it ait that hard

Amy, lujlp already posted about that (about 1/4 way down the posts). First, read the posts! Oh, I shouldn't have to tell you that, haha.

As for poop, maybe those chickens can take care of that too. It's called "sustainability", just like a perpetual-motion machine, but with mass, not energy.

Anyhoo, I knew a girl whose family raised some chickens in their yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts (10 years back) right near Harvard. She was a well-paid computer programmer, but being Chinese, I think her family just had always had chickens, from the old country, yeah, they rode in 1st class with them to the new world.

So, now that Vista is out, we are all chicken farmers. (Oh, and the depression coming too, can't blame it all on Vista, though I'd like to ;-)

Amy -

1) Food: Chickens were originally domesticated (as were goats and pigs) because they are efficient scavengers. All these animals turn kitchen scraps into food.

A neighbor runs a small petting corner in our village - rabbits, chickens, goats. He put out a basket, and folks drop off their stale bread. He and a few others save table scraps. That's it.

An organic farmer I know schleps home the vegetable peelings and stale bread from his hi-tech company's cafeteria. He's raising chickens, ducks, and goats.

Even if you're not that dedicated, it will take a long time for 4 chickens to go through a garbage-can full of commercial grain-based feed, supplemented by table scraps. The only other thing you need to do is give them crushed limestone or seashells for calcium (=eggshells).

And part of the idea of the "chicken ark" is that the chickens get at least some of their nutrition by scratching in the dirt for bugs.

Which leads to...

2) The other part of the "chicken ark" concept is that the chicken pen sits over a garden bed. The floor is screen mesh: the chicken poop falls directly into the place that needs fertilizing. Then you roll the "chicken tractor" to another part of the garden, and plant veggies where the chickens were.

This is an elegant solution that eliminates the mess, smell, and awful chore of cleaning out straw bedding from a traditional henhouse.

Whether the concern is economics or healthy food, many people should consider a small chicken ark that rotates through a few compact veggie garden beds. There's a lot of synergy there.

Square Foot Gardening is a simple technique for small-space veggie gardening, popularized by a PBS show a while back. It is a natural fit for the chicken ark system. Google "square foot gardening" for all the info you need.

Oh, and legally - most bylaws allow a small number of chickens, as pets. So this is doable in most residential areas.

Also, her husband's time is better spent trying to get freelance jobs building people porches and such...if anyone's even buying that.

Maybe introduce the hubby to the Chicken tractor idea -- maybe he can make some bucks off making them?

When you decide to get your chickens, here's a place to order them: http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/. I highly recommend the free catalog they will mail you upon request... its really fun loooking at all the funny looking chickens.

Did you know... when you order your chicks, the two day old baby chicks arrive alive (at least, most of them), in a box, at the post office? (They pack them up and mail them "overnight mail" right after they are hatched. The postal workers always get a big kick out of my chirping boxes.

The first couple of months, the chicks are fragile and need a controlled environment (heat lamp) of around 95 degrees. After they get their feathers, they are fine outside. If you have raccoons, possums, or coyotes in your neighborhood, you will need a VERY secure night-time coop for them or you will wake up one morning to a scene of slaughter.

Unless the law has changed &I'm pretty sure it hasn't, it is legal to keep hens in Los Angeles City and County... roosters are NOT allowed unless you have agricultural zoning.
Most Wal-Marts sell chicken feed.

Again, there's effort and expense for this, which, for the savings on eggs, it seems would be better spent elsewhere.
- - - - - - - - - -
Granted. But:
1) As the article you quote points out, food is one of the last cost-cutting frontiers for some. And in areas less climate-blessed than California, veggies can be expensive.

2) Most folks with enough land to consider this plan are already forking over lots of money for grounds care - either a landscaping service or by themselves.

Instead of squandering those resources on a bland tree-n-grass suburban spread, you can get some return.

3) An even less labor-intensive approach is to replace ornamental trees for fruit and nut trees. Very little effort after the first year, and continued yields.

Very little effort after the first year, and continued yields.

And a huge, smelly mess from fallen fruit; lots of bugs buzzing around; fruit getting wormy. My neighbor had a pear tree; that's what it was like.

Why didn't your neighbor (or you) pick the pears?