Get out and vote if you want chicks in your backyard

Proponents say a yes vote is a vote for locally produced food and a vote for a greener Portland. Other chicken pros include:

• Fresh organic eggs are healthier for you and the environment: no fuel used trucking them to stores!

• Provides an alternative to factory farms that pollute our environment with animal waste

• Composted droppings make incredible garden fertilizer: Reduce/Reuse/Recycle!

• Pet chickens keep your yard healthier by eating ticks and other insects.

• Hens (no roosters!) are quieter than dogs or parrots and when well cared for as suburban pets (not as farm animals) they don't smell.

• Backyard chickens lead happy, healthy lives. Kept in attractive garden coops they won't roam into neighbors' yards (like some dogs and cats do!)

• Worried about backyard chickens being carriers of disease? The international sustainable agriculture organization GRAIN concluded in a 2006 report: "When it comes to bird flu, diverse small-scale poultry farming is the solution, not the problem," because poultry raised on a small scale are less likely to carry diseases than factory-farmed poultry.

• Major cities all over America - including South Portland - allow and even encourage backyard hens. They are fun, educational, and make good neighbors.

The most important time for showing your support will be at the first vote, at the City Council meeting on Feb. 18. That's when the council accepts and seeks public input.

If you have any questions regarding city chicks check out what SoPo's doing.