Misguided Foodies?

Environmentalism and social responsibility has invigorated the mind-sets of those people who like to view themselves as responsive to new social movements that they consider to be of value and of which they plan to be a part. Certainly there must be among them genuinely concerned people whose intention it is to be responsible for themselves and their use of the resources society uses so lavishly. Among them also are those who cling to the latest social ventures as a symbol of their proud inclusion, a kind of social status symbol.

And then there are those whose character is totally invested with a sense of personal superiority, clutching to themselves the proud belief that they are superior, exceptional and their choices reflect their superior exceptionality. They smugly think of themselves as trail-blazers in new social directions, claiming to be representative of those who make their own solutions to difficult problems that society as a whole faces.

They tend as well to be deeply concerned over health issues; and in fact environmental and personal  health issues converge on their horizon, claiming equal weight and attention. Consuming, for example, locally grown foodstuffs becomes an imperative that responds to the need to be socially aware, responsible and responsive to both issues. The environment is aided by the fact that they claim to use food products extracted from a near geography, rather than food delivered from far-flung places.

Organic farming producing food from within a close geographic range pleases the aesthetic and social sensitivities of people alert to warnings of global warming or climate change. They feel they must do something to respond to what seems to be inevitable, and they choose to condemn genetically modified crops, pesticides, food derived from areas from great distances away, and the petrochemical industry in general.

And perhaps people so devoted to these causes do have a greater public conscience than others. More power to them, for dedicating so much of their thinking, planning and action-oriented lives on these socially-divisive and problematical issues. But then on the other hand, sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men do go awry. As in the locavore movement's pride in raising fowl in their own backyards; nothing like a freshly-plucked egg that one's own hen has laid so close at hand, after all.

Except that nothing is ever as simple as it seems. And keeping chickens is not quite like purchasing food at the supermarket. Maintaining a brood of laying hens relates to a long-term commitment. Just as people dedicated to the welfare of animals select organic free-range eggs for their meals, people who go a step further to raise their own chickens for fresh egg-delivery have come to realize that life is more complicated than at first envisioned.

Laying hens lay eggs for two years of their ten-year-long lives. During their lifetime they require the care and consideration for their health and well-being that any domestic pet should be able to rely upon. This simple, albeit complex fact has finally dawned on the once-enthusiastic backyard chicken-raisers, and they have been abandoning their fowl with amazing regularity. Dropping them off like orphans outside butchers shops, at animal welfare depots, wherever they can rid themselves of the birds.

Perhaps someone should have directed them to read the 1950-era-popular book "The Egg And I".

"It's the stupid foodies", Chicken Run Rescue owner Mary Britton Clouse said. "We're just sick to death of it.... People don't know what they're doing." For in response to public pressure, cities like Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal and Guelph whose residents have insisted on new municipal laws permitting them to raise backyard chickens, responded affirmatively.

But now animal shelters are expecting a new run on their services, rather overburdening them with the sheer volume of animals that trendy foodists are rapidly ridding themselves of.