Friday, May 27, 2016

Black faces another battle







Having won a hard-fought battle to win the right to grow chicken without quota, small-flock farmer Glenn Black of Manitoulin Island is now battling with his municipality for the right to keep using sea containers for a brooder and for feed storage.

This is the fourth time the municipality of Central Manitoulin is trying to ban sea containers as animal shelters.

They’re good enough for residents of Vancouver to use as homes, but apparently not good enough for chickens.

Black and his wife, Jean, market pastured poultry, free range eggs, lamb, and goat from their 100 acre farm in Central Manitoulin.
“If this draconian by-law against sea containers is passed, my farm is dead,” says Black.

“We customized a 40-foot sea container to be a world-class brooder. Without that brooder, we can no longer raise pastured poultry. Without the income from our poultry operations, our farm cannot survive.”


The previous three attempts to pass a sea container By-law were abandoned due to significant problems in the wording of the By-law, and public backlash.

Black is hoping farmers will rally to his defence and persuade the municipality that his use of sea containers is acceptable.