hummer010: You don't have to tell me the importance of farming - mrs. hummer and I live smack dab in the middle of farming country. My two closest neighbours are a cattle rancher running about 150 head, and a grain farmer farming 6,000 acres. I haven't bought beef in a grocery store in about 10 years - I'd much rather buy a 4H cow and stuff my freezer that way. Better beef, and I support the local farmers. Ditto with eggs. We have a neighbour about 8 miles away with a whack of laying hens - my son calls here "the chicken lady". We generally buy all our eggs from her. If mrs. hummer gets her way, we'll have chickens soon.
You can't beat fresh food and meat from a farm :-). Chickens are not too hard to take care of, once you have everything in place. Predators can be a problem, but it's not too hard to keep the chickens secure. You could even leave their care for your kids, as they are not too high maintenance. Does your wife want them for eggs and meat, or just for eggs?
AgentBirdnest: The guy actually got a ton of hate mail for that video. He had to make an apology, and explain that he was not serious about his criticism of farmers, and that the joke was supposed to be on himself and how clueless he is about the way the world works.
*Mad props to the farmers of the world!*
Also, there is no such thing as a gluten allergy. You can be allergic to wheat, but not gluten. I agree, the whole thing is ridiculous.
Some people complain too much about jokes. It was only a joke, I don't see why he would get hate mail for that. Comedy is always subjective, so making people apologise for everything that causes offence will just result in all comedians apologising. Kind of like how the world has gone mad about political correctness.
I should have said intolerance, rather than allergy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-related_disorders