Moral Farming: The Innovation of Joel Salatin
Most students were probably not aware of the fact that a bio-terrorist visited campus a few weeks ago. Joel Salatin, the owner of Polyface Inc., has given himself many names including: Christian, farmer, Libertarian, lunatic, Capitalist, and environmentalist, but he has been called bio-terrorist by his critics. Polyface Inc., Joel’s family-owned livestock farm, is situated in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and is esteemed as the ultimate sustainable farm. The sustainability movement, which calls for sustainable practices in every aspect from architecture to farming, is blossoming throughout the country and Salatin is at the front of the phalanx leading the charge.
Salatin, through a slight Southern drawl but with a generous helping of Southern humor, explained the theories that comprise his farm to a packed Ball Theatre. He began by attributing his practices to God, and continued to explain that God has created a rational world with certain underlying principles. These principles essentially consistently run the world, and he believes that they must be followed throughout life. The aim of his work is to understand these laws and manage them in the most efficient and productive manner possible.
Salatin is not bashful to proclaim that an element of morality exists in farming practices. His goal at Polyface Inc. is to accept things as they are and treat the elements of a farm according to their natural existence. With this devotion, Salatin stands as a stark minority against the vast machine of agribusiness, which has accused him of being a bio-terrorist because of his foreign farming practices. The inconsiderate and volatile entity that modern large-scale agriculture is today takes little care or notice for the natural behaviors of the organisms upon which it acts. Salatin attempts to do everything to the extent of his ability to promote the “pigness” of the pig or the “chickenness” of the chicken according to their God-given natures. The modern agriculture machine, however, treats the pig as simply bacon and ham, and the chicken as a six-piece meal from KFC.
He believes in holism in stark contrast to the prevailing mantra of today which routinely considers the world as simply a sum of its parts. Whereas many “experts” will say that the only way to learn about an organism or phenomenon is to break it down and study its components, Salatin feels that in addition to this reductionism every attempt at grasping something must be done by looking at the said thing as a whole.
Salatin argues that the mentality of today’s food cultivators creates an unethical and dangerous society for everyone in that society, not just the animals. His reason is this: how can one respect one’s neighbors if one cannot respect simple things like a chicken or turkey or pig. He further claims that this American culture is given little or no respect throughout the world. In comparison, Polyface attempts to foster an environment of mutual respect for the animals with which they concurrently depend and work. As he says, “I am in the business of creating a moral culture that can be respected by the world.”
Regardless of his message of just and good farming, none of it would carry an ounce of weight without some backbone. Well, Salatin can carry quite a load, for Polyface Inc. is truly an incredible organization. Some of their farming practices are unbelievably interesting and practical. He says that the farm is centered on harvesting the sun. Anyone with knowledge of the agricultural practices most widely used in this country would think this quite an odd statement, but the point is that the farmer harvests the energy of the sun by capturing it in the grass, which is then eaten by animals, which are then consumed by humans.
In his own words, the farm is an “elaborate dance” that again attempts to mimic the patterns of natural herds such as buffalo. The ingenious method by which Salatin simultaneously grows his cows and chickens cannot go without mention. It all begins with the grass, which is the foundation of the farm. It starts out simply enough in that the herd of cattle are directed onto a certain portion of the pasture and then left to graze. This simple action is heavily layered, however, because the timing of the grazing is essential. Nature, according to Salatin, relies on a certain amount of destruction to format further growth. Take body building for example. The muscles are torn in lifting weights and then repaired to become stronger. As the cows consume the grass much of it falls to the ground and is then stamped down by the cows’ hooves. This razing allows the bacteria and other organisms in the soil to get at the grass and break it into nutrients thus creating a more healthy soil.
So, after the cows have more or less eaten everything on the pasture, they move on to the next spot. The chickens then take the lead in the dance, and swarm the recently abandoned pasture. They consume bugs which have infiltrated the manure left behind by the cows. The beauty of the system is the plethora of actions taking place on one area of pasture between two animals. Firstly, no food need be bought for either the cows or chickens. Secondly, the animals themselves ex¬terminate any of the “wastes” without use of insecticide. Thirdly, the soil be¬comes more rich and healthy through the actions of mowing the grass by the cows and the aeration from the feet of the animals. So Salatin takes what are considered to be wastes- manure and insects- by industrial feedlots and turns them into beef and eggs, which are usually higher quality and healthier than what’s regularly found at a local grocery.
This natural but different process has earned Salatin his title of bio-terrorist, because it is seen as harmful to other nearby farms. Regardless of his critics, Salatin’s work is beautiful. It expresses what true agriculture should resemble. Whether or not it is feasible for the entire livestock agriculture of this country to run in such a manner is debatable, but the abundant products and humane methods used at Polyface Inc. should be carefully considered.
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