I confess to a rare problem – gynekinetophobia, or the fear of women falling on me – but this is a rather mild illness compared with many affluent suburbanites, who have developed an almost total zoophobia, or fear of anything that moves. It is, as any traveler can confirm, a complaint best developed in the affluent North America, and seems to be part of the blue toilet dyes, air fresheners, lots of paper tissues, and two showers a day.
It is very difficult, almost taboo, to talk of using rabbits, quail, pigs, poultry, or cows in city farms or urban gardens in the United States. They are commonplace city farm animals in England, and are ordinary village animals in Asia. Australians feel no repulsion towards them, and the edible guinea-pig lives comfortably in the homes of South Americans. But in the USA, no!
I LOVE it!!! #1 Bill is pretty funny! #2 This is SO true. I know that there are pockets and people in Pittsburgh who are working against this statement and I personally really like chickens and think city chicks are rather cool. I will say though, that mainstream….thinks chickens in the city, in your backyard is just crazy! And a total turn off to Permaculture. I had not really made the connection until recently when every time I talked about permaculture someone would ask me about chickens! “Well, do you have to have chickens?” “Now permaculutre, thats with the chickens, right?” And in thinking about different crowds/ groups in Pittsburgh, I know for sure permaculture would be lost on the first mention of chickens. Its so strange to me…. #1 because I personally dont automatically link permaculture to chickens and #2 because most of the people who think it below them to raise their own chickens would eat the meat of a hen raised in a factory farm. I just dont know how this makes sense. Thanks Bill for pointing the finger at us!! Its true… we are a country afraid of chickens!
