Egg prices are up all over the U.S. primarily due to bird flu, which forced chicken farmers to liquidate their poultry. However, prices will come down soon because if there is anything Americans know how to do, it's mass-producing chickens.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration feels compelled to address this short-term crisis because the President promised to lower food prices. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins off-handly suggested that people should raise their own chickens.
Catherine Rampell, a Washington Post op-ed columnist, jumped on this casual remark, accusing Trump of urging Americans to go back to subsistence farming. I have a few bones to pick with her arguments.
First, the Trump administration is not pushing Americans to become subsistence farmers, and it was disingenuous for Rampell to say that it did.
Second, Ag Secretary Rollins's suggestion that people raise chickens for home consumption is not a bad idea. Rampell pointed out that some cities ban townspeople from raising livestock on residential property, but that's not universally true. People are raising chickens in their backyards all over America.
A young relative of mine raised chickens at his suburban home in upstate New York for several years. His family obtained all the eggs they needed from just six chickens. I ate some of those eggs, which tasted delicious--much better than store-bought eggs.
Rampell's essay throws cold water on the notion that Americans should grow their own food. "The fact that we humans don't have to spend all our time growing our own sustenance, and can instead specialize in other fields where we're more productive is a tremendous victory for our species," she writes. Indeed, Rampell argues, "Our post-agrarian society has allowed Americans to lead richer, healthier, longer, more leisure-filled lives."
I disagree. Over my life, I've known a few people who grew most of their food from backyard gardens. I think their lives were just as rich as those of urban dwellers who bought all their groceries from Whole Foods. And home gardeners, I feel sure, are as healthy as people who don't cultivate anything besides a marijuana plant.
My father was a wheat farmer and cattleman, and I spent many weary hours driving a tractor on hot summer days. I experienced enough farm life to know I didn't want to be a farmer. I wound up being a college professor.
Nevertheless, if I were given a choice between tending my garden on a sweltering summer afternoon and attending a university faculty meeting, my decision would be easy. I would much rather weed my vegetable patch than sit through a tedious academic discussion in an air-conditioned university conference room. There are worse ways to spend a day than tending a garden.
