If.
ORGANIC LIVING
By
Robert Hodole
Zoning Laws Should Help, Not Hinder
Let’s imagine, for a moment, that every person reading
this column suddenly dropped the paper, rushed out to the
nearest farmer, and bought a small pig to raise in the
backyard for meat.
What do you suppose would happen then?
Zoning officers across the country would be beating
down doors, court summonses in hand, demanding that
the pigs be removed. Chances are they’d call all pig
raisers a “menace to the health and welfare of their
neighbors.”
But zoning laws that strictly prohibit any kind of small
scale livestock are unfair because they hurt the very
people they’re supposed to help.
The plight of Albert Sandridge, 74, and his wife Martha,
73, of Tulsa, Okla. is a good example.
The elderly couple has a small garden behind their
home. They also raise three rabbits, something they’ve
been doing for the past 20 years to help make ends meet.
Now, because Tulsa considers itself a “large
metropolitan area,” the Tulsa Health Department lodged
a complaint against the Sandridges and their food-raising
l |||||||| l | l i m ,„| l „ in^^
3-point
tractor hitch
T J
iN
I
a.
Two-speed landing gear . , . , , „ , _
(jack) provides easy You find some of these features on a 3-ton truck But
hitching with an the truck will cost you about twice as much
empty or loaded trailer
BOX 655, RDI
fy/-
K'l
Think of it as a 3-ton grain truck
for about half the price.
WINNEBAGO
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimii Agri-Trailer M 111111111111111111111 l
This versatile trailer teams up with your pickup to help you
move gram, livestock and other heavy loads in a hurry.
The Winnebago Agri-Trailer can carry as much as a 3-ton
truck It can haul over 7% tons. Or 285 bushels of grain It can
even operate as a flat bed to carry farm equipment The
Agri-Trailer can handle twice as much as a 4-wheel trailer And
unlike a 4-wheel, it can handle those loads safely at highway
speeds
Standard Features:
Heavy-duty tubular steel frame • Electric brakes all wheels
Automatic break-away switch • Approved lights and reflectors
Electric Hydraulic Pump (12V) • Electric brake control
42-in. gram box sidewalls (steel. Agri-panel or wood)
8-ft x 16-ft. grain bed
Come In Today And Check An Agri-Trader Overt
KAUFFMAN'S AGRI-TRAILER SALES
habits, maintaining that there is just not enough space in
the city for people to be raising food animals.
If Tulsa apd its environs were immune to escalating
food prices and shaky economic conditions, such a rule
might make sense. But the hard times facing the rest of
the nation are on Tulsa’s horizon, too.
Dollars don’t stretch as far as they used to. Many senior
citizens on fixed incomes are literally starving,, as prices
rocket skyward. Fuel bills are up. So are taxes.
Everything costs more. Why shouldn’t the Sandridges be
allowed to raise as much of their own food as they can?
I don’t want anyone to think I’m picking on Tulsa,
because I’m not. What’s happening there is taking place
all over the country or has already occurred. Zoning laws
have been enacted that, instead of helping people achieve
personal security, are depriving them of the means to
cope with changing times.
I doubt if many of you would run out to buy a pig on my
say-so. But these animals can be successfully raised on a
suburan lot with less offense to the neighbors than most
large-sized dogs. A pig can be housed in an eight-foot
square pen. It won’t run free, messing sidewalks. It
doesn’t bark.
Gene Logsden, a contributing editor to “Organic
Gardening and Farming” magazine, recently observed
that zoning officers “believe every man has a right to
keep a dog half as big as a buffalo dinging up everyone’s
yard in sight and barking all night. But a quiet, clean hog,
which produces protein at the most efficient feed-to-meat
conversion rate of all farm animals? Never.”
“We have to blame ourselves for the anti-pig dilemma,”
he added. “People think pigs are dirty because man
717-367-3550
ELIZABETHTOWN, PA 17022
Heavy duty
hydraulic hoist
Pin & Plate coupler
with retractable pm and
steel truckbed plate
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 1,1975
learned long ago that pigs would survive under the most
adverse conditions. He deliberately raised the poor beasts
that way to keep coats as low as possible. ’ ’
Raising a pig may be a little too ambitious a project for
most people, even if they were allowed to use a little of
their hard-earned land for a small pen. But chickens are
something else again.
Dr. Francis J. Trembley, ecologist emeritus at Lehigh
University, said that many homes in his surburban,
Pennsylvania neighborhood have large backyards that
could easily be put to good use raising chickens.
In the first place, the chickens could help recycle
garbage by eating kitchen scraps. Second, he says, they
could serve as live lawn mowers, fleshing out their bones
with good meat while eliminating that weekly suburgan
chore.
You’d have all the eggs you need with just a few hens.
You’d have an excellent source of fertilizer. And when you
were finished, you’d have a source of meat that far out
distances store-bought chicken for taste, Dr. Trembley
said. But in many municipalities, chicken-raising is
frowned upon.
That kind of public attitude isn’t going to help any of us
as we strive for greater self-sufficiency in coming years.
So let’s get busy and let our elected and appointed officials
know that zoning laws that work against people, instead of
for them, should be revised.
Editor’s Note: The opinions appearing in “Organic
Living” are those of its author, Robert Rodale, an in
dependent columnist. Rodale’s comments do not
necessarily reflect the thinking of the Lancaster Farming
editor or anyone else on the Lancaster Farming staff.)
Conservationists
Set Date For
Annual Meeting
The Lancaster County
Conservation District will
hold its annual banquet on
Thursday, March 13 at 6:30
p.m. at the Good’n and
Plenty Restaurant,
Smoketown.
Benny Martin, State
Conservationist with the U.
S. Department of
Agriculture - Soil Con
servation Service will be
guest speaker. Martin, a
career conservationist, is a
native of Bruneau, Idaho,
and graduated from the
University of Idaho in 1951
with a B. S. in Agronomy.
He began his career with
the Soil Conservation Ser
vice as a Soil Scientist in
1951. Since then, he has
served in various positions
with the Service in Idaho,
Colorado, Kansas, before
TRY A CLASSIFIED AD
PUBLrCIVIEEtTNG
OPEN TO ALL FARMERS
INTERESTED IN GROWING
, CUCUMBERS FOR PICKLING
ON THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1975
PLACE - LIBERTY FIRE HALL
NEW HOLLAND, PA
TIME - 11:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M.
COFFEE AND CAKE SERVED
DURING INTERMISSION.
If you are in the New Holland vicinity and can
grow cucumbers for pickling and can use a cash
crop, please attend.
BROWN &
LANGER INC.
68 Gansevoort Street
New York City, N.Y. 10014
Phone 212-242-1000
coming to Pennsylvania in
1971 as Deputy State Con
servationist.
Martin became State
Conservationist m 1972. He
directs SCS programs for
flood prevention, watershed
protection, soil surveys, and
technical assistance in soil
and water conservation m
Pennsylvania. He has
spoken to numerous groups
on the need for improving
the quality of the en
vironment through a sound
resource conservation
program.
Reservations for the
banquet can be made by
calling any of the Directors,
by calling the District office
at 299-5361, or by stopping at
the Conservation Office in
the Farm and Home Center,
Room 4.
51