Politics & Government

Long Grove Entrepreneur Feeds Backyard Chicken Movement

Backyard Chicken Run delivers feed to city and suburban coop keepers.

Part of a series on local food and suburban farming

  • See Related story:

For John Emrich, the foray into the local food movement began 10 years ago when he started juicing. He realized that to get the most benefits from large quantities of vegetables, they should be organic.

“There was a morphing from outdoor enthusiast to environmental advocate. Those two worlds came crashing together. I realized organic was not just the best for myself, it was also the best for the environment,” Emrich said.

Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Bluffwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Going organic naturally led to an interest in local food and backyard chickens. Emrich took a class on raising backyard chickens with Angelic Organics Farm, a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm and learning center in Caledonia, Ill. Angelic Organics is the basis of the award-winning documentary, The Real Dirt on Farmer John.

Emrich soon started surfing chicken forums and realized that Chicago chicken farmers had just one feed store, and at the time, that store didn’t carry organic feed. Many of the chicken owners, in places like Lincoln Park and Rogers Park, didn’t have cars and had to rent a car to get to the feed store.

Find out what's happening in Lake Forest-Lake Bluffwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Emrich, a former investment manager, started Backyard Chicken Run two years ago. He delivers organic feed and other products to the doorsteps of chicken keepers.

Most of Emrich’s customers are in Chicago, but he also has customers in Oak Park, Evanston, Winnetka and other suburbs.

“One of my customers in Winnetka said at her country club, all the women are now keeping chickens,” Emrich said. Emrich has a distribution site in Lake Zurich and his business is growing.

Recently Emrich decided to get his own backyard chickens. He explained that his four boys, ages 13 to 3, were saddened by the death of the family Boxer in April.

“We weren’t ready to get another dog. My 10-year-old son Wade said ‘How about chickens?’ ” recalled Emrich. “I used to help a small, organic farm in Marengo. I brought the boys out there and it was like an Easter egg hunt every day.”

Emrich got a coop and some chickens, but a neighbor complained citing a village ordinance prohibiting chickens. Emrich is now working with the village on an amendment, that could make Long Grove the first suburb in Lake County to allow chickens.

Emrich’s investment in sustainability doesn’t end with backyard chickens. He is involved in impact investing, which is in an opportunity to help businesses with sustainable and environmental goals while realizing a profit.

“I’ve been doing a lot of research and I think the sustainable food movement might be the best investment of the decade,” he said. “I think Madison Avenue and Wall Street are going to miss this completely."

He added the local food movement consists of many small businesses, spread out across the country, that are cooperative, rather than competitive, in nature.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here