Count Your Chickens- And Your Ducks
While other Michigan cities and towns have animal-keeping ordinances on the books, it’s been slower going in Detroit. A renewed push in the city could change that.
MARK COVINGTON STARTED the Georgia Street Community Collective to clean up vacant lots near his grandmother’s and mother’s house. The lots had become dumping grounds for trash.
“We reversed that and over time, we got inspired to turn it into a community garden, then into an urban farm, complete with goats, turkeys, chickens, and ducks,” says Covington, president and director of the Georgia Street Community Collective in Detroit.
While many urban farmers like Covington have added animals to their Detroit spaces in recent years, there’s only one problem: It’s illegal. That could change if a recently revived years-long effort to pass an ordinance in the city that would allow animal-keeping, also known as animal husbandry, is finally given the green light.
Other Michigan cities and towns including Ann Arbor, Royal Oak, Ferndale and Grand Rapids already have animal-keeping ordinances on the books, as do cities nationally including Cleveland, Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco, but it’s been slower going in Detroit.
“As Detroit experienced a housing crisis and some rough economic times, the idea of community gardening—or ‘guerilla’ gardening—came on strong. Animal keeping became an extension of that.”
—TEPFIRAH RUSHDAN
“The ordinance has been many years in the making,” says James Tate, City Council president pro tem and an advocate for the ordinance, which has seen a renewed push for passage this year after several years of lying dormant. As of press time, planning commissioners had moved the ordinance to the City Council for a vote, which may happen before its July 31 recess.
“We spent a lot of time having conversations with residents throughout the city, gauging interest, listening to concerns,” adds the Councilman. “The interest was significant and there was also legitimate concern, so we poured a lot of time into crafting an ordinance that would reach a kind of happy medium.”
While the ordinance would permit the keeping of animals, it wouldn’t give residents carte blanche to keep any animals they want, according to Councilman Tate. “It’s highly regulated in terms of what animals, and how many, can be kept. The ordinance is restricted to chickens or ducks or some combination of both, not to exceed eight in number.” However, it does not permit the keeping of roosters. “Roosters get testy,” says Covington. “Plus, they make a heck of a lot of noise.”
The ordinance also allows the keeping of honeybees (Apis mellifera species, to be exact) but restricts the number to two hives. Also, a flyway barrier—an obstacle like a fence, wall or vegetation used to force bees to fly upwards when they leave the hive to avoid contact with people—needs to be installed near the hives.
Many see the potential passage of the animal-keeping ordinance as a boost for the growing urban farming movement in Detroit. The city has a long history of residents growing food, dating back to Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree, who served from 1889–97 and then became governor. Amid tough economic times, the mayor made a public appeal to use vacant land for gardens and potato patches, according to Historic Detroit. In 2013, the City passed an urban agriculture ordinance defining an urban farm as a lot larger than an acre “used to grow and harvest food crops and or non-food crops for personal or group use.” The ordinance further stipulated an urban farm could be divided into plots for cultivation by an individual or groups.
Tepfirah Rushdan, formerly Detroit’s first director of urban agriculture and now director of the City’s Office of Sustainability, says, “As Detroit experienced a housing crisis and some rough economic times, the idea of community gardening—or ‘guerilla’ gardening—came on strong. Animal keeping became an extension of that.”
These sites have become a popular way for communities to bring fresh produce, eggs and meat to the people living around them. Many urban farms exist right under the city dwellers’ noses, with people growing vegetables, gathering eggs and culling chickens for meat. It’s a true farm-to-table movement that couldn’t get any closer to home.
Ashaki Johnson, who lives on the west side and supports the ordinance, says, “Everything we eat doesn’t have to be purchased at a grocery store.”
If the ordinance passes, she says that she is unsure whether she would keep animals—but would like the option.
Rushdan adds: “The closer the food system is to us, the more we can appreciate it and understand it. Urban farming and animal keeping help reconnect people to the source of their food. It localizes the food system. It’s a return to sustainable living.”
Urban farming, even on a small scale, involves planting, tilling, sowing, watering, weeding and harvesting. It also requires research to learn what plants grow in the area where the farm is located, in what season vegetables should be planted and the best ways to help the vegetables and fruit thrive. Animal husbandry is often practiced in tandem with a backyard garden. So is urban beekeeping. In addition to yielding honey, bees act as pollinators and promote biodiversity, helping to enhance the local ecosystem.
“An urban farm, although not as large-scale as a rural, multi-acre farm, still requires a commitment of time and space,” Covington says.
There are several types of urban farming. There is street landscaping for different uses such as community gardens, which are tended by the people in the neighborhood. They not only make the streets look beautiful but also purify the air. Since they are primarily located along the street, an added advantage is their ability to reduce stormwater runoff.
Greenhouse farming, as the name implies, is the practice of agriculture in greenhouses situated in residential, commercial and communal urban spaces. Depending on the crops being planted, they can require a substantial parcel of land. Their advantage lies in their ability to let urban farmers grow crops all year long.
Since urban areas often have limited space, rooftop gardening can easily be utilized for cropping vegetables, fruits and herbs. One major advantage of rooftop gardens is that they can help reduce urban heat islands.
Urban farms in Detroit have also helped improve their communities.
“The Georgia Street Community Collective has revitalized a whole community, with 17 lots on Georgia and Vinton in Detroit, including a fruit orchard,” Covington says. “We have our own community center, and we use the farm to help mentor young people.”
Whatever form it takes, people are increasingly taking to urban farming to lower grocery bills and have healthier options. Some urban farms are dedicated to making fresh food more accessible to underserved communities.
“It can save families a good amount of money,” says Covington.
Johnson adds, “We’re living in a post-Covid world. At any time, we could have another event that shuts things down. People need to have a certain degree of self-sufficiency.”
Georgia Street Community Collective
Lou Schiavone is an advertising copywriter and creative director who has worked on major advertising campaigns at agencies in New York City and Detroit. Most recently, he was a professor in the College of Communication Arts & Sciences at Michigan State University.
