Though its members hail from cities as far away as Colorado Springs, the majority of the group is made up of people from Denver, particularly residents in the city's Five Points and Highland neighborhoods, he said.
"The general idea of the group is that we believe it's a false choice between homesteading and city living," Sizemore said. "A lot of people think they need 20 acres out in the country to live a more simple, frugal, Earth-conscious lifestyle."
The homesteader movement draws its roots from the
Dervaes family, who drew a following after transforming their 1/5-acre city lot in Pasadena, Calif., into a flourishing urban garden. The idea caught on and has since spread to cities around the country, even producing a successful how-to book,
The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City.
Similar movements, including the organic slow food method touted by San Francisco chef
Alice Waters, hope to draw high-profile attention to the benefits of urban gardening. Waters, the so-called Mother of Slow Food who recently was profiled in an episode of
60 Minutes, successfully lobbied the
Obama administration to build an organic garden on the White House lawn.
First lady
Michelle Obama broke ground on the garden, which will help supply the White House kitchen, at a special ceremony March 20.
Homesteading, however, has met criticism. Some say the movement is a social fad, akin to the hippie culture of the 1960s. It's a stereotype Sizemore says couldn't be further from reality.
"There are members in the group who have
McCain bumper stickers, members who have
Obama bumper stickers and members who have
Ron Paul bumper stickers," he said. "It has nothing to do with being a hippie or a liberal or anything like that. It's about self reliance."
The effort to ease restrictions on chicken coops in the city and county of Denver also has been met with criticism, including concerns over the noise produced by chicken coops and a fear of potentially spreading fatal animal-borne diseases.
The fears over bio-security are unfounded, Sizemore said. Animal-borne diseases like the Avian flu are more often spread in large-scale operations in which chickens are tightly condensed into small spaces, he said.
Though the itch to live a more sustainable lifestyle has been slowly building over time, Sizemore said the recent economic downturn has served as a catalyst for the spike in interest. Should the "Great Recession" grow even worse, it wouldn't hurt to possess the skills to live on the ultra cheap, he said.
"There's a lot of groups throughout Denver and throughout the country that are starting to tap into this thing at the same time," Sizemore said, "and I don't think it's a coincidence."
For more information on the Greater Denver Urban Homesteaders Group, go to
www.meetup.com/greater-denver-urban-homesteaders.
Denver resident
James Bertini, who lives in the Baker neighborhood, said he and his wife
Irina became interested in raising chickens and goats. The couple, who already has a large organic garden, thought it would be great to have fresh goat milk and eggs, Bertini said.
However, after investigating the process necessary for a livestock permit, Bertini said he found the city of Denver's procedures to be cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive.
Through the group Denver Backyard Farms, Bertini and others
hope to persuade city council to change the city's fees and restrictions to help encourage those interested in growing and cultivating their own food
"The current process makes having chickens financially unsustainable," Bertini said.
He said the total permitting cost, which involves a letter and trip to animal control, a meeting with animal control at your property, three trips to zoning, posting signs on your property, and getting letters of support from your neighbors, costs $150.
The annual renewal cost for the permit is $70, and if neighbors move in who don't like the animals, the renewal request can be denied, Bertini said.
"The city government is aware that sustainability it important," he said. "We want to point out that the current permit process discourages rather than encourages sustainability."
For more information on Denver Backyard Farms, go to
http://denverbackyardfarms.org.
YourHub.com reporter Erin Feese contributed to this story.