About this episode
Featured Guests:
Kelly Dowling - Assistant Dean for Advancement, Stony Brook University College of Engineering and Applied Science
Ken Bradley - Former Winter Park Mayor
Ron Piccolo - Chair, UCF Department of Management
Mark Dickie - Professor of Economics
Jonathan Hasford - Assistant Professor of Marketing
Carolyn Massiah - Associate Chair, Department of Marketing & Associate Lecturer, Marketing
Episode Transcription:
Paul Jarley: Green Acres was a popular TV show when I was a kid. Simple plot line. Wall Street attorney forces socialite wife to give up New York and move to the farm. Cultures class, chaos ensues, but now it seems the tables have turned. Chickens are leaving farms in favor of urban backyards. Some inner city chickens even have Facebook pages. What's going on here? Are backyard chickens a thing? If so, why, and more importantly how can we stop them? This show is all about separating hype from fundamental change. I'm Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business here at UCF. I've got lots of questions. To get answers, I'm talking to people with interesting insights into the future of business. Have you ever wondered, is this really a thing? Onto our show.
Paul Jarley: My wife and I lead complicated lives. Careers and homes in two different states, five children spread across four time zones, our club's soccer schedule that takes Suzanne and sometimes meets towns far and wide, my work related travel, and our love of experiencing new places. Honestly, there are days I'm not sure where I am when I first wake up. One morning a few years ago, I was home in Lexington when I heard this. Suzanne was raised on a farm, but I was pretty sure we weren't at her parents' place. When she woke, I asked her about hearing that rooster crowing. She smiled and told me that the neighbors have installed a chicken coop, and that we were getting farm fresh eggs as part of the deal. "Much healthier and better tasting than store bought eggs," she stated with authority. Everybody knows eggs come in two rows in nice little cartons that sell for a few bucks at the grocery store. If you want to go crazy, you can buy the free range chicken variety, pay a dollar more, feel morally superior, and cook an extra one because they're puny.
Paul Jarley: No one in their right mind believes it makes any economic sense to raise chickens at home. Besides, they're dirty, smelly creatures. There's a reason most of us stay away from the harsh realities of the food chain. I cracked a few eggs, scrambled them, and took a few bites. Different, not obviously better, I thought. Not a thing. Just a few hippies. This thing will be gone very soon. It turns out, I may have been wrong.
Kelly Dowling: Hi, chick chicks.
Paul Jarley: This whole chicken in the backyard thing has got some legs. The government has even released a series of studies on it. The best data on
