Free-Range Farming
Fresh air foraging and sunshine.
Free-range farming means more than simply allowing your stock to come and go as they please. Minimal use of chemicals and a concern for animal welfare are important factors as well. Mary Malyon talks to three very different producers to find out what free-range farming means to them.
The Small Scale Producer: Annie Ennor of Annie’s Eggs
A Canterbury woman born-and-bred, Annie sells her eggs at farmers markets around Christchurch. Ten years ago she fell ill and gave up fulltime work. “I needed another income and I’d kept chooks on a small-scale in the past so I thought I’d give it a go.”
She moved some sheds from her previous place and started small with 300 hens. I ask why she went free-range? “As a child it was my job to feed the chooks,” she says. “I don’t like battery farming. Free-range chickens have plenty of fresh air and space to roam. They’re easier to look after like that,” she adds. Read more>>
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Back to Nature or Back in Time?
Is the green movement forcing women back into the home?
If like me your head has been buried in a fug of nappies, baby food and breast milk for the last year, you might not have heard about a controversial book released recently which blamed the green movement for romanticizing the ‘back to nature’ ideal and forcing women back into the home.
In Le conflit: La femme et La Mere, French feminist Elisabeth Badinter blames the “holy reactionary alliance” of green politicians, breastfeeding campaigners and child psychologists for turning women into slaves to ‘green’ practices like reusable nappies, homemade organic food and breast-feeding. Read more>>
