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My neighbor, Joel Salatin, is featured in the documentary and the book "Omnivore's Dilemma." He is a hoot, whether you are watching his DVD or you are reading one of his several books. I am reading "Everything I Want to do is Illegal" right now, and he has me incensed and out of breath with laughter at the same time.

I frequently go to his farm and fall in and work. He has an "open door" policy to all. He hides nothing.

Joel Salatin & Food, Inc.
April 23, 2009 in Essays & Articles
Tags: joel salatin

April 23, 2009
The mainstream press is catching on:

By Joshua Hatch, USA TODAY
SWOOPE, Va. – The white metal sign over the desk at Polyface Farm reads, “Joel Salatin: Lunatic Farmer.”

Salatin is proud of that label. “I’m a third-generation lunatic,” he boasts while standing in his lush, green central Virginia fields. Brown chickens strut and peck around his feet. “I don’t do anything like average farmers do,” he says.

What the 52-year-old farmer does is let his cows feed on grass instead of corn or grain. He moves his cows to new fields daily. Flocks of chickens scratch around open fields, spreading cow droppings, eating flies and larvae, and laying eggs in the Salatin-built eggmobile. Hogs forage in the woods or in a pasture house where they root through cow manure, wood chips and corn. The resulting compost gets spread back over the fields, fertilizing the grass for the cattle. That completes the cycle.

“It’s completely counter to current agricultural wisdom,” he says. Current agricultural practices often encourage using technology – petroleum-based fertilizers, hormones and antibiotics – to spur growth and reduce costs as much as possible.

Salatin has become known for his unconventional ways. Highlighted in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan’s 2006 exploration of what we choose to eat and how it is grown, and himself the author of six books on farming, Salatin spurns pesticides, antibiotics and fertilizers. “I’m honoring the traditional natural patterns. It’s about enhancing the cowness of the cow.”

Now the “lunatic” is about to come to the big screen in a documentary titled Food, Inc., directed by Robert Kenner. Due to open June 12 in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the documentary takes a critical look at the American food system, contrasting industrial agribusiness with operations like Polyface.

Read the rest at this link Joel Salatin & Food, Inc. the irresistible fleet of bicycles