Chickens

Re “The Chickens Came First . . . ,” June 12.

It is always interesting to learn about the different people who populate our San Fernando Valley. However, sometimes it is just as important to point out there is a history behind our actions.

I was amused to learn that Ken Arno and Doreen Radogna of Van Nuys raise chickens in order to sell their “organic” eggs.

In the late 1940s and the 1950s there were over 100 chicken farmers raising chickens for eggs. They were very innovative (as opposed to the way chickens were raised in New Jersey), as their chickens were housed above ground, with two chickens per cage. My father at one time had one of the largest chicken ranches in the Valley; 15,000 chickens raised on one acre of property (although the total property was three acres). At the time he said that he raised “chickens on wire.” Little did he know then that he had begun the quest for organic eggs.

RHODA GREENBERG LEWIS, Encino