Joel Salatin - Polyface Farms

There is a documentary called 'Food Inc.' that is worth your while.  It shows the horrors of the government corporate food complex.  It's as horrid and repellent as the prison industrial complex, the government media complex and the government banking complex.  At the end of the documentary, there is this southern drawling Virginia farmer explaining how his clean, natural, self sustaining farm was a target for the, as he calls them, Food Police.  The documentary is well done because the viewer has just seen an hour and a half of the pathetic, sad and disgusting horrors of the Big Industrial Food Complex.  Salatin's farm, Polyface Farms, is what an old style farm used to be.  The cows eat grass, the crops are rotated and planted with non GMO seeds, the operation is clean and the meat is healthy and natural.  It is because of all of these things that Polyface was a target. Salatin explains all of this in the latter third of the documentary.

One of the tenets of my class, the premise I espouse early in the year, is that there are many people interested in keeping the General Mass Public sick, stupid, broke and afraid.  Food Inc. is the best way to begin the exploration of the 'sick' part of the quartet.  Our culture is rife with high fructose corn syrup, xanthan gum, splenda, preservatives that no one can pronounce, and nutrient free 'food'.  Big Agriculture is out of control via government sponsored subsidies, and the unintended (and some intended) consequences are being seen now - obese children, cheap empty calorie food, skyrocketing rates of  cancer and heart disease and possibly most distressing, a noted disinterest in where and how one's food is made.

Salatin is worth listening to for a few reasons.  Firstly, he is politically incorrect.  Like Ron Paul, he is talking about giving people the freedom of choice.  As Paul would talk about not shutting the FED down, but letting currencies (like gold and silver) compete, Salatin does not advocate shutting down a company like Monsanto, but giving people to option to grow their own food and letting small operations compete freely.  The United States is not free.  A citizen is NOT allowed to do these things via federal law or local statutes.  Also, regulation and government intervention is strangling healthy food production and innovation.  Your garden variety American still thinks that government regulation is geared toward your health and safety when it is just the opposite - as Salatin explains.  Secondly, he talks about this latest generation.  They don't know how to grow things, get dirty, preserve food, or tend to farm chores.  He mentioned something that stuck with me - that this is the first generation of youngsters that have not been burdened with chores.  It is these analyses of society that sets Salatin apart and makes his thoughts worth analyzing.

Notable points:

• Let your children walk around barefoot and get dirt under their fingernails - it is actually an immune booster that is healthier in the long run than the antiseptic environments we've created.
• Having chores and responsibilities is a boon to your child.  They will learn about responsibility and contributing to the whole of the household.
• Food freedom is vital - giving people the power of choice is paramount for the survival of the West.
• The Food Police - the government corporate food complex is killing your children.  Raw milk is illegal and will warrant a visit from armed thugs, but Mountain Dew is acceptable.
• Monsanto can have its GMO product ravage your crops, literally have their GMO pollen blow on to your crops, and YOU have to pay a royalty to THEM - this is approved by this current Democratic president.  I thought this was bold of Salatin to mention because the talk he gave at Google is undoubtedly young left leaning types who think that the halls of government are filled with weeping angels unnaturally predisposed to helping the downtrodden.  A risky strategy but Salatin pulls it off nicely.

Here is Salatin's talk @Google:

For those who think the raw milk armed raid is hyperbole - here you go: