yeah boy! fight the power!

When life kills your lemons, grow new ones. New Orleans residents are tired of excuses from politicians and pollution from big businesses. Peep it to see how they’ve taken matters into their own hands.

Residents of New Orleans have been devastated by natural disaster, economic tragedy and threats to their livelihood from pollution in the Gulf. Now, they have decided to take advantage of lax regulatory laws in their state and have started growing food and raising livestock to support their families. In addition to raising chickens in their backyards, residents are growing peaches, grapefruits, peppers, watermelons, blueberries, tomatoes, persimmons, figs and bananas. They also have a bee hive capable of producing 50 pounds of honey this year. Residents tout the benefits of being self-sustaining:

“[Chickens]They’ll eat weeds, table scraps, over-mature vegetables, they’re the ideal backyard garbage disposal,” said Philip Soulet, an art gallery owner who keeps a handful of chickens on a plot overlooked by Interstate 10, just north of St. Charles Avenue.

Soulet works with Parkway Partners, another urban farming nonprofit group, teaching classes on raising chickens and growing vegetables to local students.

In the Bywater neighborhood, zookeeper Richie Kay raises chickens, quails and turkeys in his backyard, breeding about 50 chicks for friends in the past year. Kay’s prize rooster, Skeleton, is the only male in the backyard menagerie, and he even rides on Kay’s shoulder as part of his krewe during Mardi Gras.

Jenga Mwendo runs the Guerilla Garden in the Lower 9th Ward. Once a vacant lot, Mwendo petitioned the city to let her buy it for $4,000 last year, and since then, more than 400 volunteers have developed the plot into a working farm producing fresh vegetables.

“This is a neighborhood that doesn’t have a grocery store,” Mwendo said. “And yet a couple of generations ago, everybody had fruit trees in their yards. We’re just trying to preserve and encourage that tradition.”

When it comes to raising and slaughtering livestock, New Orleans also affords unique opportunities for free experimentation. Simply put, the New Orleans Police Department seems to have bigger fish to fry than cracking down on urban farmers.

“Look at the cities where urban farming is huge,” said Novella Carpenter, the author of “Farm City,” a memoir about her experiences in an Oakland ghetto.

“Cities like Detroit, Philadelphia and Oakland are traditionally considered to have marginalized areas and abandoned places,” she said. “Places where people are like, ‘I wouldn’t want to live there, it’s too violent.’ It does encourage you to do whatever you want in terms of urban farming.”