Some experts say the way we make our food has changed more in the last 50 years than the previous thousand. A local business that teaches about sustainable living says the methods food makers use to mass produce food can affect your health. So the River School is teaching others to create their own food source by getting back to the basics.

Tom Stille, owner of the River School, says “two to three chickens in one's own backyard is one of the most sustainable things you can do. Not only do they give us eggs but maybe more important is fertilizer for our garden and we can feed them kitchen scraps.”

And yes, Stille says according to local ordinances, hens are allowed within city limits.

Justin DeLong, who works with Stille, claims it's easy to care for chickens. "Almost anyone can have a small coup in your backyard.”

Raising your own chickens might sound unreasonable in this day and age, but some people say it's just a lost art—because nowadays, chickens are mass produced to maximize profit.

“Go to any mass meat company and walk in doors and see what they do there. They’re pecking at each other and fighting— it's gross. They’re not concerned with our health, we need to be.”

Stille says “commercial agriculture has taken the animal off the farm.”

At the River School they raise and butcher their own chickens because then they know where their food source comes from.

“These chickens have had a wonderful life compared to 95 percent of chickens that are eaten in the country,” insists Stille.

And when the roosters here get too old or the hens can no longer lay eggs, they eat them. The River School even has a poultry butchering class, to show people how to do it on their own.

If raising and eating your own chickens isn't for you, their message still remains the same: it's important to know where your food comes from, and how it's made.

For more information on the River School: http://www.riverschool.info/river_school/home.html