The localvore movement (eating locally) is alive, well and growing in Massachusetts as more and more people understand the health and economic benefits of eating locally produced, organic food, but for one family in Fairhaven their efforts to produce their own eggs are being blocked by the Town’s Board of Health who ruled that the chickens are a threat to public health and safety. Kate Levin Vliet purchased a small flock of 12 hens in the spring of 2007 and applied for a permit to the Board of Health as is required in her Rural Residential zoning area. The Board denied her application on the grounds that the chickens are a threat to public health and safety because they will attract rats, coyotes and other undesirable animals to the neighborhood and because of the “topography” of her lot which is long and narrow. Kate believes this decision was “arbitrary and capricious” given their recent approval of a permits for poultry and livestock in the same area and on small lots, including one to keep 150 pigeons in the immediate vicinity of a daycare center. She also believes that the decision was based on her neighbor’s opposition to her keeping the flock because of his concerns about noise, rodents and stray cats. The town’s animal inspector stated that he “could see no reason why the Vliets would be denied a permit.” Her perception that this was an unfair decision led her to take the matter to civil court where a final hearing on the matter is scheduled for January, 2009. The Board of Health has filed an injunction to have the birds forcibly removed from the property before the court makes its decision. This action was despite the fact that Ms Levin has taken considerable precautions to shield her neighbor from the birds. She installed 240 feet of privacy fencing, moved the coop further away in her yard to reduce any noise, keeps the feed in a sealed, metal bin and regularly removes compost from the property. She has offered to implement a professional pest management program to avoid any rodent problem. It was this last move by the Board of Health that has forced Kate to bring this matter to the attention of the public via the media in an effort to help increase awareness of the challenges many people will face from local government and neighbors who do not understand the value of individuals raising their own food. She said that “in light of the current trends toward eating locally ….. and going green, supporting local farming combined with the incredible rise in food costs facing our families it is imperative that we work to protect our agricultural heritage…. What my family and I are doing is exactly what many generations before us has done, raise healthy food to help offset the rising costs of feeding our family.”