Local organizing successfully overturned city bans on backyard hens and bees

Evidence

Many of the urban farmers who are raising food for their families have also successfully challenged city ordinances that have prevented keeping farm animals or bees within city limits. In Ypsilanti, Michigan and neighboring Ann Arbor, city residents organized using localization principles from the Transition Model to argue for the introduction of laying hens for backyard residential egg production. This successful lobby was followed by an agreement for bringing beekeeping into the city. Substantial re-education about the safety of honeybees in city gardens was required as local people expressed fears of increased potential for bee stings. Honeybees are generally non-aggressive when left undisturbed to do their pollination work, and the local activists won City Council over. — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1819

Categorization

• SEED: The bee-sting re-education campaign shows how commons-based localization requires changing cultural fear, a fine essay hook for eco-justice pedagogy.