Thank you for your support in helping to change the Rome/Floyd ordinance 4.2.3 in regards to the keeping chickens within the City Limits of Rome, Georgia.

This ordinance has been in place since the year 2000. In the 23 years, the City Commissioners have rejected each application for a special use permit. The city charges an application fee of $150 for a property size of .86 acres. They take the fee and decline each application. The fee is non-refundable.

THE 9 CITY COMMISSIONERS- Sundai Stevenson - Mayor - Ward One, Mark Cochran - Mayor Pro Tem - Ward One, Bonny Askew - Commissioner - Ward Three, Elaina Beeman - Commissioner - Ward Two, Jim Bojo Commissioner - Ward One, William "Bill" Collins - Commissioner - Ward Three, Jamie Doss Commissioner - Ward Two, Craig McDaniel - Commissioner - Ward Three, Randy Quick - Commissioner - Ward Two HAVE NEVER ONCE APPROVED A SPECIAL USE PERMIT.

I believe they are unjustly denying people access to food that will benefit their families. 

The existing ordinance is too strict on land size and only 4 hens, which is the chicken world is not always enough to produce needed eggs or meat for a family. 

A FAMILY OR INDIVIDUAL HAS THE HUMAN RIGHT TO FOOD. 

Why is the right to food a human right?
The right to food, and its non variations, is a human right protecting the right for people to feed themselves in dignity, implying that sufficient food is available, that people have the means to access it, and that it adequately meets the individual's dietary needs.

In Maine, they voted for a state wide Right to Food bill. It states: Rights to food and food sovereignty and freedom from hunger. All individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to food, including the right to acquire, produce, process, prepare, preserve and consume the food of their own choosing by hunting, gathering, foraging, farming, fishing, gardening and saving and exchanging seeds or by barter, trade or purchase from sources of their own choosing, for their nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being, as long as an individual does not commit trespassing, theft, poaching or other abuses of private property rights, public lands or natural resources in the acquisition of food; furthermore, all individuals have a fundamental right to be free from hunger, malnutrition, starvation and the endangerment of life from the scarcity of or lack of access to nourishing food.

While it has certainly become a prominent voice, the first such legislation was passed in Wyoming in 2015. The first-of-its-kind Food Freedom Act, while not entirely revolutionary in its first iteration, was expanded in 2017 and again in 2020. North Dakota and Maine followed suit, with Utah becoming the fourth state to enact a food freedom law in 2018.

The United Nations also includes the Right to Food. It states: 

The nature of the legal obligations of States is set out in article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in General Comment No. 12 also defined the obligations that States must fulfill in order to implement the right to adequate food at the national level. These obligations are: 

To respect existing access to adequate food requires States parties not to take any measures that result in preventing such access;
To protect requires measures by the State to ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of their access to adequate food;
To fulfill (facilitate) or pro-actively engage in activities intended to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources, and means to ensure their livelihood, including food security;
To fulfill (provide) the right directly when an individual or group is unable, for reasons beyond their control, to enjoy the right to adequate food by the means at their disposal. This also applies to victims of natural or other disasters.

Food security does not come from a grocery store, especially during times of inflation. Gardening and raising animals for food - such as chickens is necessary for individuals and families to have food security.

In the state of Georgia, at the state level, chickens are considered domestic animals and are not against the law. Why do we allow these 9 City Commissioners not to allow the people that they serve to be able to feed their families how they choose?! I believe they are in violation of the United Nations Right to Food obligation. There should not be a special use permit for a basic human right to food.

Please sign and share this petition to show the City Commissioners that the residents of Rome/Floyd County Georgia and beyond agree that it is time for them to support families in raising their own food as they see fit. 23 years of denying people the right to legally own chickens is ridiculous! Enough is enough!