Joel Salatin in Guelph, October 18th

The Practical Farmers of Ontario are bringing Joel Salatin to speak in Guelph October 18th. Click here for details.

From Elizabeth Nolan Brown, on Reason.com

Joel Salatin. Photo via Practical Farmers of Ontario

Joel Salatin—farmer, author, activist, provocateur—seemed especially fed up as he spoke at the 2014 LPAC conference Friday. Salatin is a self-described libertarian who gets cited approvingly by the Michael Pollan types of the world because he preaches the gospel of small-scale, pesticide-free farming and home-cooked meals. (Salatin also labels himself an environmentalist, capitalist, Christian, and lunatic.) He was featured in the documentaryFood, Inc. and is prone to saying things like this from Friday’s speech: “I think that one of the most rebellious things we can do in our culture now is to spend time in our kitchen.”

“In (the libertarian) movement, we’re accused a lot of being elitists,” Salatin told the LPAC audience. It’s a charge he also hears about healthy-eating evangelists such as himself. But “the real elitists” are the people who say “we need to tell Americans what to eat.”

Trial date in 2015 set in the Michael Schmidt and Montana Jones vs the CFIA sheep-napping conspiracy case

From Montana Jones:

Monntana Jones with Joel Salatin. Photo Liz Reitzig

I’ve been mostly quiet, waiting. Waiting for light, for inspiration, for renewed spirit, for solutions regarding the future and the farm and waiting for the date to be set for the preliminary hearing.

Don’t have all the answers yet. Forging ahead and trusting they will appear when they will. It’s hard to fathom it’s been four years of varying states of limbo already, since the CFIA Sheep Siege began. Four years!

The most important realization is that things will happen, things will change. For better or worse, they will change with or without me. Isn’t it better to show up?

I’ve felt monumentally supported at times, and at others, whipped myself with blame for being anxious and overwhelmed with the feeling that the CFIA has stolen my simple life.

Joel Salatin debates Joseph Mercola on GMOs — Thurs. Nov. 7 live and online

From Kimberly Hartke’s “Hartke is Online” blog:

“The hue and cry over GMO ingredients in our food supply is probably giving the herbicide pushers sour stomachs and sleepless nights. What if organic food activists actually succeed in drumming up enough resistance to genetically modified food to disrupt the market? Would there be a radical exodus from the processed food aisles when all those labels “out” the offending products?

Currently, 64 countries around the world require labeling of genetically engineered foods.  Unlike most other developed countries – such as 15 nations in the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Russia and even China – the U.S. has no laws requiring labeling of genetically engineered foods. Why is the U.S. so negligent in notifying?

The importance of rural America — different strokes for different folks?

From farmer Joel Salatin, August 18, 2013, via the Polyface Farm FB page:

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Photo: USDAgov/Flickr

Why do we need more farmers? What is the driving force behind USDA policy? In an infuriating epiphany I have yet to metabolize, I found out Wednesday in a private policy-generation meeting with Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McCauliffe. I did and still do consider it a distinct honor for his staff to invite me as one of the 25 dignitaries in Virginia Agriculture for this think-tank session in Richmond.

“Give me liberty or give me death”

From J. Richards:

Farmers Michael Schmidt and Joel Salatin, yesterday at the FDA rally. Thanks to Bev Hill for the photo (via Facebook)

Dairy farmer Michael Schmidt has been on a hunger strike since September 29, 2011.  It wasn’t until well into his hunger strike that I first became aware that in Canada, it is illegal to sell raw milk to informed adults.  As a lawyer, this both intrigued and infuriated me.  At its heart, this is a liberty issue.  Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the right to “life, liberty, and security of the person”.

After all, what is the value of section 7 if it does not protect the freedom of individuals to privately contract with other individuals for the purposes of enabling them to consume the foods of their choice?  I wanted to learn more, so I conducted some research and ultimately contacted Michael Schmidt’s lawyer, Karen Selick, of the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

How animal rights threaten farming

David E. Gumpert, on the Complete Patient blog:

Joel Salatin explains the workings of Polyface Farm on Saturday, as FTCLDF attendees, and chickens, look on. Photo via The Complete Patient blog

“Believe it or not, there’s a food issue lurking out there beyond food rights and food safety. Joel Salatin, the Virginia farmer-author-activist is worried that that next issue is animal rights.

He’s already seeing evidence of it at Polyface Farm, his own farm in the Shenandoah foothills. During a tour of his farm Saturday for 150 attendees as part of a fundraiser for the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, Salatin said he’s been reported to his local animal control officials by area residents who have had concerns about the treatment of his cattle.

“We’ve been snookered” — Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin talks about his new book, titled: “Folks This Ain’t Normal”:

“We hope you enjoy this clip of Joel Salatin talking about his soon-to-be-released book . . .

The Atlantic joins a pilgrimage to Joel Salatin’s mecca of sustainable farming

From Andrea Gabor, in The Atlantic:

“Two weeks ago, I joined about 1,700 farmers, foodies, and families from across the U.S. for a pilgrimage to Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm, home of his iconic model of local, sustainable agriculture.

Salatin, the high priest of “grass-farming,” as he defines his work, hosts a field day every three years on his 550-acre spread in Swope, Virginia, in the hills of the Shenandoah Valley. Visitors have come from as far away as Florida and Iowa to trudge through the thick, soft pastures and see how Salatin raises cows, chickens, pigs, rabbits, and poultry. It is a brilliant sunny day, warm already at 8 a.m. on a Saturday.

Walking up a gentle slope, we come upon a herd of cows “mobbed” under a shady canopy, nibbling grass and depositing patties of natural fertilizer in the acre-or-so where they have been herded for the day. Tomorrow the white plastic electric fence—so thin it is hard to see in the brilliant sunlight—will be moved, the cows transferred to a new paddock so they can feast on a fresh “salad bar.” Nearby, the chickens, in their big, floorless, corrugated tin-and-mesh mobile playpens are pecking at the cow patties left by the previous day’s mob, picking out the fly larvae, aiding the composting process. Like so much on the farm, it is a virtuous cycle, the cows and chickens working together to create the rich soil, grass, and insect ecosystem. 

Twinkies vs Raw Milk — Joel Salatin

From Karen DeCoster, writing on the LRC blog (Lew Rockwell):

“Here’s Joel Salatin at the 2:50 mark of the video, stating that he thinks it is pretty amazing that we have a government that decides it is perfectly safe to feed your kids ho-ho cakes, Twinkies, and mountain dew, but its unsafe to feed them raw milk.

If you are the kind of person who delights in sniggering at boorish government propaganda, you might enjoy the FDA’s Big Lie on raw milk vs pasteurized milk over at its corner on the web: “The Dangers of Raw Milk: Unpasteurized Milk Can Pose a Serious Health Risk.” 

Lunatic farmer Joel Salatin on food, health and the FTCLDF as our NRA

From the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund:

“Staci Strauss and Craig McCord of Slow Films Production Company and the sister site, The People Who Feed Us, committed a random act of kindness and activism!  The Fund is mentioned loud and proud on this video featuring Joel Salatin.