In the hands of some people, “mission creep” turns quickly to mission crap.

Mission creep is defined as “undesirable due to the dangerous path of each success breeding more ambitious attempts, only stopping when a final, often catastrophic, failure occurs.”  We have a perfect example of mission creep in process right here on Springfield’s City Council.

Here’s the history:  about six months ago, there was an aggressive push from some folks in the city to be allowed to have urban gardens.  Now, gardens in the back yards of homes have never been illegal nor regulated, but that wasn’t enough for the progressives.  They wanted empty lots designated as “urban gardens” so entire neighborhoods could jointly work on growing vegetables and fruits.  No problem. I voted for it. Neighborhoods need projects to pull everyone together.

However, about two weeks after the ordinance on urban gardens was passed, our resident creeper stopped referring to urban gardens and the phrase that continually dropped into the conversation was “urban farms.”

Note the mission creep:  urban gardens have now morphed into urban farms.

Fast forward through the next few weeks.  There have been frequent references to urban farms, all sprinkled into the conversation.  Then, suddenly, there is a push to allow the raising of chickens inside the city limits.  There have been all kinds of trumped up reasons:  local food supply, sustainability, reduced food expenses, etc.

Note the mission creep:  urban gardens to urban farms to, now, urban chickens.

After a public meeting liberally salted with folks who want chickens in the city, a number of emails were received by Council members from folks who didn’t want the ordinances changed.  They don’t want chickens in the City, period.

Unfortunately--for their cause, the advocates of urban chickens neglected to get the local health department on board.  The same factors that led to the “sanitation movement” in the 1950’s still exist.  Chickens are still noisy; they carry diseases; and—if I may be permitted an indelicate comment—their poop still stinks.

However, the creep continues.  Today, an email arrived from one of my Council colleagues.  The gist of the message is as follows:

“Today I ran into the local University of Missouri Extension expert on urban farming.  I asked him what animal husbandry activities are appropriate, in his opinion, for small urban farms.  He said poultry, rabbits, honeybees and fish.  I hope we can consider these four items in our discussion Friday.”

Note the direct line of the mission creep:  We’ve now gone from growing tomatoes in the back yard to now farming with a hodge-podge of animals in the city.  Incidentally, the term “poultry” refers to domesticated birds raised for their eggs and meat.  In addition, it includes ducks and domesticated geese as well as the raising of pigeons, doves, and pheasants.

This creep means a whole lot of crap.  And, for Springfield, that just stinks.