Urban chicken farmers plan to fight new restrictions on flocks from Des Moines City Council members
DES MOINES, Iowa — Embracing the ‘farm life’ in Iowa is intentional.
“You got to be connected to your food source,” urban farmer Ed Fallon said.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a duo more connected than Fallon and Kathy Byrnes
“This is part of sustainable, responsible living and we’re super proud to be even a part of that,” Byrnes said.
From the food they grow to the livestock they raise, proof of their mission can be seen on the dinner table each night.
Everything they normally would buy from a store is raised in the backyard. From chickens, to rabbits, seed to corn all grown in the heart of Des Moines within the Sherman Hill neighborhood.
“It’s also a thing about freedom. You know we really value freedom in this country and people should be able to be free to live the life they live, providing they’re not messing up their neighbors or their community.”
During Monday’s special city council meeting, Ward II Council Member Linda Westergaard pointed to noise and odor complaints raised by residents living next to chicken flocks.
“There are a lot of people with chickens. There are also a lot people who live next door to where chickens and roosters are and they are being disturbed of their peace and quiet,” Westergaard said during the meeting.
During the meeting members voted on changing the existing city ordinance reducing backyard chicken flocks from 30 to 12 and restrict all roosters within city limits.
“I’ve never seen anything quite so sneaky. Not a single chicken person was alerted. It was a whistle blower who called me and said, hey you better know this is going on,” Fallon said.
City manager Scott Saunders waived the required three readings on the change if the council voted unanimously to change the ordinance. Ward III Councilman Josh Mandelbaum chose to hit the brakes.
“My hope is that we slow this down and have some conversations, so I intend to vote no as it is currently written,” Mandelbaum said.
The council plans to have a second reading at the next meeting August 5.
“Right now I’m focused on educating seven people about this and that’s the seven members of the Des Moines City Council and four of them have been out to our farm including Linda Westergaard. They’ve seen what we do here, they all seemed to be very approving of it and when we proposed back in 2020 that the city setup a food security task force to get more urban agriculture going, they passed it unanimously,” Fallon said.
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