July 28’s [1] Letters to the Editor of the Portsmouth Herald contained this letter:

July 23 — To the Editor:

I read with interest the article bannered in this morning’s Portsmouth Herald concerning the sale of chicken at the Farmers Market (”Feathers fly over chicken ban”).

I was astonished that the question I was searching for an answer to had never been addressed by either your reporter or the participants in the controversy. It is a fundamental question of the use of government power: does the government respond or prohibit? Has anyone been sickened by the chicken from the market? Has there been a rampage of salmonella or food poisoning?

If not, what is the outrage to the community that Kim McNamara is responding to? Is her suzerainty too small for her ambitions? Or are there ailing citizens by the score? Until this question is answered, I’m all for continuing to have the chicken sold.

Chuck Galle

Greenland

Chuck and all - the answer is a definitive NO on citizens becoming ill from locally raised and processed poultry. No one has gotten sick.

On a personal note, national food illness scares only serve to make local food make even more sense to me. More attention is paid, the food chain is infinitely shorter leading to faster understanding of problems (though there have been no problems because the food producers care about their community).

We need the chicken back in Portsmouth because from a sustainability standpoint we need to be gathering our food as close to home as we can, or in as centralized a manner as possible. We need to give consumers access to good healthy food where they are, and they are in Portsmouth, making this a significant blow to the livelihood of poultry producers. In the meantime, we need to support our producers so they make it through this difficult season. Yellow House Farm chickens are for sale at the Exeter, Dover, and Barrington Farmers’ Markets. Kellie Brook Farm chickens are for sale at the Kingston and Exeter farmers’ markets, as well as at the farm (call ahead if its your first time visiting) in Greenland.

[2] Info on the Exeter, Dover, and Kingston farmers’ markets >

[3] Info and driving directions to the Barrington Farmers’ Market >