Sun 4/28 @ 5pm
By John Benson
The novelty behind Willie Nelson singing a Coldplay song for a Chipotle ad wears off pretty quickly when the state of industrial animal agriculture is taken into consideration.
In a nutshell, the discussion that seemingly should take place after seeing the animated commercial (aside from the fact Nelson’s version of “The Scientist” is way better than Coldplay’s original, right?) is scheduled for this Sun 4/28 at the Lakewood Public Library.
The affair begins with Lakewood Ward 2 City Councilman and The Pew Charitable Trust Ohio Representative Tom Bullock talking about public health and environmental impacts of factory farms that provide the vast majority of meat in our grocery stores. This is followed with a public forum co-hosted by LEAF and Hens in Lakewood to discuss responsible backyard hen-raising as part of Lakewood’s successful local food landscape. Cool Cleveland talked to Bullock about this unique presentation.
Cool Cleveland: Tell us more about your portion of this forum.
Tom Bullock: I am describing the problems with industrial animal agriculture, public health and environmental pollution wearing my hat as Pew Charitable Trust representative. I’m getting involved personally because I work as an advocate for reforming industrial animal agriculture.
From an environmental standpoint, why is this discussion important for Northeast Ohio?
Lake Erie has experienced record algae blooms and a major contributing source is the manure produced in huge amounts by industrial animal farms. There’s a picture of an algae bloom in Lake Erie that stretches from Toledo to Cleveland. That means more chemicals, more cost and more public health threats are in our water. In addition, it means it hurts tourism, fishing and many other problems. That’s just the most obvious. There are other problems the forum will focus on which is super bacteria evolving at a very fast rate due to misuse of antibiotics on factory farms. This is something I’m delivering in multiple venues and forums across the state of Ohio.
Let’s switch over to the hen movement in Lakewood. What’s the clucking all about?
I support the hen proposal, and I’ve committed to the citizen group that I will work with them to develop an ordinance for introduction in council as a follow-up to the forum. They’ve developed a thorough, thoughtful, high-quality proposal they plan to present to citizens and get input. The proposal would be to allow for personal, backyard, small-scale hen keeping. It would be personal flocks for non-commercial healthy-living eggs.
It’s kind of funny how everything in life is cyclical. It was only a few generations ago that people raised hens or animals in their backyard. Here we are again.
Exactly. The proposal is a good one and something that fits for Lakewood. More and more people are supporting this old-becomes-new or new-becomes-old practice because they’re aware of the very problems that I’m going to present to them. And they want an option for feeding their children healthy food. They want to know where their food comes from and have high-quality gourmet, locally-produced food and maybe teach their kids something about nature. So more and more people agree with this. The attitudes have really turned a corner I think.
Obviously being a resident, does it surprise you this movement is emanating from Lakewood?
It doesn’t surprise me that we see so much support in Lakewood because Lakewood is a natural catch basin for young residents, for creative people, for family-oriented people and for people who care about sustainability.
You’ll have to excuse the next question but are you going to play the Chipotle commercial and/or Nelson’s “The Scientist” at the upcoming forum?
[Laughs] I haven’t seen that but I will say Chipotle is a great example of how to do business right. They use antibiotic-free pork and other kinds of meat. And people like Chipotle because it’s good food.
The environmental discussion begins at 5 p.m. and the Hens in Lakewood forum starts at 6pm on Sun 4/28 at the Lakewood Public Library, 15425 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood. https://facebook.com. http://lakewoodobserver.com.
Freelance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio. When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria. John also occasionally writes for CoolCleveland.com.
Lakewood, OH 44107
One Response to “Factory Farms, Algae Blooms & Hens in Lakewood”
Jessica Ferrato
I think it’s great that Lakewood is talking about backyard chickens, but this interview makes it seem like they are pioneers when, relative to Cleveland and other nearby cities, they are late adopters. I hope that they get with the program soon. I’ve been helping my friends and family from other towns start backyard coops, and it has crossed my mind that if I moved out of Lakewood, I could start my own.